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THE  TIME  MACHINE 


Buckram   Seriee.     Ji^: 

SPANISH  CASTLES  BY  THE  RHINE. 

A  Triptychal  Yarn.    By  Daviu  S.  Foster. 
OUT  OF  BOUNDS. 

By  A.  Gakky. 
A  MAN  AND  HIS  WOMANKIND. 

A  novel.     By  Nora  Vynn^. 
SIR  QUIXOTE  OF  THE  MOORS. 

A  Scotch  Romance.     By  John  BuchAN. 
LADY  BONNIE'S  EXPERIMENT. 

A  quaint  pastoral.     By  Tighe  Hopkins. 
THE   WHITE    HECATOMB. 

Tales  of  the  Transvaal.   By  Wm.  Chas.  Scully. 
KAFIR  STORIES. 

Tales  of  adventure.    By  Wm.  Chas.  Scully. 
THE  MASTER-KNOT 

And  "  Another  Story."     By  Conover  Duff. 
THE  TIME  MACHINE.      iid  Editiori.') 

The  Story  of  an  Invention.     By  H.  G.  Wells, 

THE  PRISONER  OF  ZENDA.    (36//^  Ed?) 
By  Anthony  Hope.     A  stirring  romance. 

THE  INDISCRETION  OF  THE  DUCHESS 
By  Anthony  Hope.    (j.xth  Edition.') 

TENEMENT  TALES  OF  NEW  YORK. 
By  J.  W.  Sullivan. 

SLUM  STORIES  OF  LONDON. 

(^Neighbors  of  Ours?)  By  H.  W.  Nevinson. 

THE  WAYS  OF  YALE,     i^th  Edition.-) 
Sketches,  mainly  humorous.     By  H.  A.  BeBRS. 

A  SUBURBAN  PASTORAL,     i^th  Edition:) 
American  Stories.     By  Henky  A.  Beers. 

JACK  O'DOON.     iid  Edition.) 
An  American  novel.     By  Maria  Beale, 

QUAKER  IDYLS.     (5M  Edition.) 
By  Mrs.  S.  M.  H.  Gardner. 

A  MAN  OF  MARK,     iqth  Edition?) 
A  South  American  tale.     By  Anthony  Hops. 

SPORT  ROYAL.  (4M  Edition?) 
And  Other  Stones.     By  Anthony  Hope. 

THE  DOLLY  DIALOGUES,    {sith  Edition:^ 
By  Anthony  Hope. 

A  CHANGE  OF  AIR.    (9M  Edition?) 
By  Anthony  Hope.     With  portrait. 

JOHN  INGERFIELD.    (6M  Edition?^ 
A  love  tragedy.    By  Jerome  K.  Jerome. 

HENRY  HOLT  &  CO.,  New  York. 


THE  TIME  MACHINE 


AN  INVENTION 


BY 

H.    G.    WELLS 


"Fool!    All  that  is  at  all 
Lasts  ever  past  recall." 

— Browning 


KEW  YORK 

HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 

1895 


Copyright,  1895, 

BY 

HENRY  HOLT  &  CO 


THE  MERSHON  COMPANY   PRESS, 
RAHWAY,   N.   J. 


AUTHOR'S  NOTE 


T/ie  Time  Traveler's  Story  and  a  part  of 
the  introductory  conversation  appeared  as  a 
serial  in  the  New  Revieiv.  Several  descrip- 
tive passages  in  the  story  had  previously 
appeared  in  dialogue  form  in  the  National 
Observer,  and  the  explanation  of  the  ' '  prin- 
ciples" of  Time  Traveling  given  in  this  book 
is  inserted  from  the  latter  paper,  I  desire 
to  make  the  usual  acknowledgments. 

H.  S.  W. 


4'/'?  09  6 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    The  Inventor,     .        .        .  i 
II.     The    Time    Traveler    Re- 
turns, ....  25 

III.  The  Story  Begins,      .        .  38 

IV.  The  Golden  Age,     .        .  52 
V.     Sunset,          .        .        ,        «  63 

VI.     The  Machine  is  Lost,     .  79 
VII.     The  Strange  Animal,          .  92 
VIII.     The  Morlocks,         .        .  120 
IX.     When  the  Night  Came,      .  134 
X.     The  Palace  of  Green  Por- 
celain,         .        .        .  151 
XI.     In    the    Darkness   of   the 

Forest,      .        .        .        .168 
XII.     The   Trap   of    the   White 

Sphinx,         ...  185 

XIII.  The  Further  Vision,          .  192 

XIV.  After    The    Time   Travel- 

er's Story,  ...  207 


■/^^09 


THE  TIME  MACHINE. 


CHAPTER  I. 

XLbc  ITnventor. 

^HE  man  who  made  the 
Time  Machine — the  man  I 
shall  call  the  Time  Traveler 
— was  well  known  in  scientific  circles 
a  few  years  since,  and  the  fact  of  his 
disappearance  is  also  well  known. 
He  was  a  mathematician  of  peculiar 
subtlety,  and  one  of  our  most  con- 
spicuous investigators  in  molecular 
physics.  He  did  not  confine  himself 
to  abstract  science.  Several  ingeni- 
ous, and  one  or  two  profitable,  patents 
were  his :  very  profitable  they  were, 
these  last,  as  his  handsome  house  at 
Richmond  testified.     To  those  who 


2  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

were  his  intimates,  however,  his 
scientific  investigations  were  as  noth- 
ing to  his  gift  of  speech.  In  the 
after-dinner  hours  he  was  ever  a 
vivid  and  variegated  talker,  and  at 
times  his  fantastic,  often  paradoxical, 
conceptions  came  so  thick  and  close 
as  to  form  one  continuous  discourse. 
At  these  times  he  was  as  unlike  the 
popular  conception  of  a  scientific  in- 
vestigator as  a  man  could  be.  His 
cheeks  would  flush,  his  eyes  grow 
bright ;  and  the  stranger  the  ideas 
that  sprang  and  crowded  in  his 
brain,  the  happier  and  the  more 
animated  would  be  his  exposition. 
Up  to  the  last  there  was  held  at 
his  house  a  kind  of  informal  gather- 
ing, which  it  was  my  privilege  to  at- 
tend, and  where,  at  one  time  or 
another,  I  have  met  most  of  our  dis- 
tinguished literary  and  scientific  men. 
There  was  a  plain  dinner  at  seven. 
After  that  we  would  adjourn  to  a 
room  of  easy-chairs  and  little  tables, 
and  there,  with  libations  of  alcohol 


THE  INVENTOR.  3 

and  reeking  pipes,  we  would  invoke 
the  god.  At  first  the  conversation 
was  mere  fragmentary  chatter,  with 
some  local  lacunce  of  digestive 
silence  ;  but  toward  nine  or  half-past 
nine,  if  the  god  was  favorable,  some 
particular  topic  would  triumph  by  a 
kind  of  natural  selection,  and  would 
become  the  common  interest.  So  it 
was,  I  remember,  on  the  last  Thurs- 
day but  one  of  all— the  Thursday 
when  I  first  heard  of  the  Time 
Machine. 

I  had  been  jammed  in  a  corner 
with  a  gentleman  who  shall  be  dis- 
guised as  Filby.  He  had  been  run- 
ning down  Milton — the  public  neg- 
lects poor  Filby's  little  verses  shock- 
ingly ;  and  as  I  could  think  of 
nothing  but  the  relative  status  of 
Filby  and  the  man  he  criticised,  and 
was  much  too  timid  to  discuss  that, 
the  arrival  of  that  moment  of  fusion, 
when  our  several  conversations  were 
suddenly  merged  into  a  general  dis- 
cussion, was  a  great  relief  to  me. 


4  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

"  What's  that  is  nonsense  ?"  said  a 
well-known  Medical  Man,  speaking 
across  Filby  to  the  Psychologist. 

"  He  thinks,"  said  the  Psycholo- 
gist, "that  Time's  only  a  kind  of 
Space." 

"  It's  not  thinking,"  said  the  Time 
Traveler  ;  "it's  knowledge." 

"fFoppish  affectation,"  said  Filby, 
still  harping  upon  his  wrongs ;  but 
I  feigned  a  great  interest  in  this 
question  of  Space  and  Time. 

*' Kant "began  the  Psycholo- 
gist. 

*' Confound  Kant  !  "  said  the  Time 
Traveler.  "  I  tell  you  I'm  right. 
I've  got  experimental  proof  of  it. 
I'm  not  a  metaphysician."  He  ad- 
dressed the  Medical  Man  across  the 
room,  and  so  brought  the  whole 
company  into  his  own  circle.  "  It's 
the  most  promising  departure  in  ex- 
perimental w^ork  that  has  ever  been 
made.  It  will  simply  revolutionize 
life.  Heaven  knows  what  life  will  be 
when  I've  carried  the  thing  through." 


THE  INVENTOR.  5 

"  As  long  as  it's  not  the  water  of 
immortality  I  don't  mind,"  said  the 
distinguished  Medical  Man.  "  What 
is  it?" 

"  Only  a  paradox,"  said  the  Psy- 
chologist. 

The  Time  Traveler  said  nothing 
in  reply,  but  smiled  and  began  tap- 
ping his  pipe  upon  the  fender  curb. 
This  was  the  invariable  presage  of 
a  dissertation. 

"  You  have  to  admit  that  time  is  a 
spatial  dimension,"  said  the  Psychol- 
ogist, emboldened  by  immunity  and 
addressing  the  Medical  Man,  "and 
then  all  sorts  of  remarkable  con- 
sequences are  found  inevitable. 
Among  others,  that  it  becomes  pos- 
sible to  travel  about  in  time." 

The  Time  Traveler  chuckled. 
"  You  forget  that  I'm  going  to  prove 
it  experimentally." 

*'  Let's  have  your  experiment,"  said 
the  Psychologist. 

"  I  think  we'd  like  the  argument 
first,"  said  Filby. 


6  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

"  It's  this,"  said  the  Time  Traveler. 
"  You  must  follow  me  carefully.  I 
shall  have  to  controvert  one  or  two 
ideas  that  are  almost  universally  ac- 
cepted. The  geometry,  for  instance, 
they  taught  you  at  school  is  founded 
on  a  misconception." 

"  Is  not  that  rather  a  large  thing 
to  expect  us  to  begin  upon?"  said 
Filby. 

"  I  do  not  mean  to  ask  you  to 
accept  anything  without  reasonable 
ground  for  it.  You  will  soon  admit 
as  much  as  I  want  from  you.  You 
know,  of  course,  that  a  mathematical 
line,  a  line  of  thickness  nil^  has  no 
real  existence.  They  taught  you 
that  ?  Neither  has  a  mathematical 
plane.  These  things  are  mere  ab- 
stractions." 

"That  is  all  right,"  said  the 
Psychologist. 

'*  Nor,  having  only  length,  breadth, 
and  thickness; can  a  cube  have  a  real 
existence." 

"There    I     object,"     said    Filby. 


THE  INVENTOR.  7 

"  Of  course  a  solid  body  may  exist. 
All  real  things " 

**  So  most  people  think.  But  wait 
a  moment.  Can  an  instantaneous 
cube  exist  ?  " 

"  Don't  follow  you,"  said  Filby. 

"  Can  a  cube  that  does  not  last 
for  any  time  at  all,  have  a  real 
existence  ? " 

Filby  became  pensive. 

"Clearly,"  the  Philosophical  In- 
ventor proceeded,  "any  real  body 
must  have  extension  in  four  direc- 
tions :  it  must  have  Length,  Breadth, 
Thickness,  and  —  Duration.  But 
through  a  natural  infirmity  of  the 
flesh,  which  I  will  explain  to  you  in 
a  moment,  we  incline  to  overlook 
the  fact.  There  are  really  four 
dimensions,  three  which  we  call  the 
three  planes  of  Space,  and  a  fourth, 
Time.  There  is,  however,  a  tend- 
ency to  draw  an  unreal  distinction 
between  the  former  three  dimen- 
sions and  the  latter,  because  it  hap- 
pens that   our  consciousness  moves 


8  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

intermittently  in  one  direction  along 
the  latter  from  the  beginning  to  the 
end  of  our  lives." 

"  That,"  said  a  Very  Young  Man, 
making  spasmodic  efforts  to  relight 
his  cigar  over  the  lamp :  "  that — 
very  clear  indeed." 

"  Now,  it  is  very  remarkable  that 
this  is  so  extensively  overlooked," 
continued  the  Philosophical  Inven- 
tor, with  a  slight  accession  of  cheer- 
fulness. "Really  this  is  what  is 
meant  by  the  Fourth  Dimension, 
though  some  people  who  talk  about 
the  Fourth  Dimension  do  not  know 
they  mean  it.  It  is  only  another 
way  of  looking  at  Time.  There  is 
no  differ e7ice  betiveen  Time  and  any  of 
the  three  dimensions  of  Space  except 
that  our  consciousness  moves  along  it. 
But  some  foolish  people  have  got 
hold  of  the  wrong  side  of  that  idea. 
You  have  all  heard  what  they  have  to 
say  about  this  Fourth  Dimension  ? " 

"I  have  not,"  said  the  Provincial 
Mayor. 


THE  INVENTOR.  Q 

"It  is  simply  this,  That  space,  as 
our  mathematicians  have  it,  is  spoken 
of  as  having  three  dimensions,  which 
one  may  call  Length,  Breadth,  and 
Thickness,  and  is  always  definable 
by  reference  to  these  planes,  each  at 
right  angle  to  the  others.  But  some 
philosophical  people  have  been  ask- 
ing why  three  dimensions  particularly 
— why  not  another  direction  at  right 
angles  to  the  other  three  ? — and  have 
even  tried  to  construct  a  Four-Dimen- 
sional geometry.  Professor  Simon 
Newcomb  was  expounding  this  to 
the  New  York  Mathematical  Society 
only  a  month  or  so  ago.  You  know 
how  on  a  flat  surface,  which  has  only 
two  dimensions,  we  can  represent  a 
figure  of  a  Three-Dimensional  solid, 
and  similarly  they  think  that  by 
models  of  three  dimensions  they 
could  represent  one  of  four — if  they 
could  master  the  perspective  of  the 
thing.     See?" 

"  I  think  so,"  murmured  the  Pro- 
vincial   Mayor  ;    and,    knitting     his 


10  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

brows,  he  lapsed  into  an  introspective 
state,  his  lips  moving  as  one  who  re- 
peats mystic  words.  **  Yes,  I  think 
I  see  it  now,"  he  said  after  some 
time,  brightening  in  a  quite  transi- 
tory manner. 

""  Well,  I  do  not  mind  telling  you  I 
have  been  at  work  upon  this  geom- 
etry of  Four  Dimensions  for  some 
time.  Some  of  my  results  are  curi- 
ous :  for  instance,  here  is  a  portrait 
of  a  man  at  eight  years  old,  another 
at  fifteen,  another  at  seventeen,  an- 
other at  twenty-three,  and  so  on.  All 
these  are  evidently  sections,  as  it 
were,  Three-Dimensional  representa- 
tions of  his  Four-Dimensional  being, 
which  is  a  fixed  and  unalterable 
thing. 

"  Scientific  people,"  proceeded  the 
Philosopher,  after  the  pause  requiicd 
for  the  proper  assimilation  of  this, 
*'  know  very  well  that  Time  is  only 
a  kind  of  Space.  Here  is  a  popular 
scientific  diagram,  a  weather  record. 
This  line  I  trace  with  my  finger  shows 


THE  INVENTOR.  1 1 

the  movement  of  the  barometer. 
Yesterday  it  was  so  high,  yesterday 
night  it  fell,  then  this  morning  it  rose 
again,  and  so  gently  upward  to  here. 
Surely  the  mercury  did  not  trace  this 
line  in  any  of  the  dimensions  of  space 
generally  recognized  ?  But  certainly 
it  traced  such  a  line,  and  that  line, 
therefore,  we  must  conclude,  was 
along  the  Time  Dimension." 

"  But,"  said  the  Medical  Man, 
staring  hard  at  a  coal  in  the  fire,  "  if 
Time  is  really  only  a  fourth  dimen- 
sion of  Space,  why  is  it,  and  why  has 
it  always  been,  regarded  as  something 
different  ?  And  why  cannot  we  move 
about  in  Time  as  we  move  about  in 
the  other  dimensions  of  Space  ?  " 

The  Philosophical  Person  smiled. 
"  Are  you  so  sure  we  can  move  freely 
in  Space?  Right  and  left  we  can 
go,  backward  and  forward  freely 
enough,  and  men  always  have  done 
so.  I  admit  we  move  freely  in  two 
dimensions.  But  now  about  up  and 
down  ?     Gravitation  limits  us  there." 


12  THE    TIME  MACHINE.. 

"  Not  exactly,"  said  the  Medical 
Man.     "  There  are  balloons." 

"  But  before  the  balloons,  save  for 
spasmodic  jumping  and  the  inequali- 
ties of  the  surface,  man  had  no  free- 
dom of  vertical  movement." 

"  Still  they  could  move  a  little  up 
and  down,"  said  the  Medical  Man. 

"  Easier,  far  easier,  down  than 
up." 

*'  And  you  cannot  move  at  all  in 
Time.  You  cannot  get  away  from 
the   present  moment." 

"  My  dear  sir,  that  is  just  where 
you  are  wrong.  That  is  just  where 
the  whole  world  has  gone  wrong. 
We  are  always  getting  away  from 
the  present  moment.  Our  mental 
existences,  which  are  immaterial 
and  have  no  dimensions,  are  passing 
along  the  Time  Dimension  with  a 
uniform  velocity  from  the  cradle  to 
the  grave.  Just  as  we  should  travel 
down  if  we  began  our  existence  fifty 
miles  above  the  earth's  surface." 

"But  the  great  difficulty  is  this," 


THE  INVENTOR.  13 

interrupted  the  Psychologist :  "You 
can  move  about  in  all  directions  of 
Space,  but  you  cannot  move  about 
in  Time." 

"  That  is  the  germ  of  my  great  dis- 
covery. But  you  are  wrong  to  say 
that  we  cannot  move  about  in  Time. 
For  instance,  if  I  am  recalling  an  in- 
cident very  vividly  I  go  back  to  the 
instant  of  its  occurrence  ;  I  become 
absent-minded,  as  you  say.  I  jump 
back  for  a  moment.  Of  course  we 
have  no  means  of  staying  back  for  any 
length  of  time  any  more  than  a  sav- 
age or  an  animal  has  of  staying  six 
feet  above  the  ground.  But  a  civil- 
ized man  is  better  off  than  the  savage 
in  this  respect.  He  can  go  up  against 
gravitation  in  a  balloon,  and  why 
should  we  not  hope  that  ultimately 
he  may  be  able  to  stop  or  accelerate 
his  drift  along  the  Time  Dimension  ; 
or  even  to  turn  about  and  travel  the 
other  way  ?  " 

"Oh,  this;'  began  Filby,  "is 
all " 


14  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

"  Why  not  ?  "  said  the  Philosoph- 
ical Inventor. 

"  It's  against  reason,"  said  Filby. 

"What  reason?"  said  the  Philo- 
sophical Inventor. 

"  You  can  show  black  is  white  by 
argument,"  said  Filby,  "but  you  will 
never  convince  me." 

"  Possibly  not,"  said  the  Philosophi- 
cal Inventor.  "  But  now  you  begin 
to  see  the  object  of  my  investigations 
into  the  geometry  of  Four  Dimen- 
sions. Long  ago  I  had  a  vague  ink- 
ling of  a  machine " 

"  To  travel  through  Time  !  "  said 
the  Very  Young  Man. 

"  That  shall  travel  indifferently  in 
any  direction  of  Space  and  Time,  as 
the  driver  determines." 

Filby  contented  himself  with  laugh- 
ter. 

"  It  would  be  remarkably  con- 
venient," the  Psychologist  suggested. 
"  One  might  travel  back  and  witness 
the  battle  of  Hastings." 

"  Don't  you  think  you  would  at- 


THE  INVENTOR.  *5 

tract  attention?"  said  the  Medical 
Man.  *'  Our  ancestors  had  no  great 
tolerance  for  anachronisms." 

"  One  might  get  one's  Greek  from 
the  very  lips  of  Homer  and  Plato," 
the  Very  Young  Man  thought. 

"  In  which  case  they  would  cer- 
tainly plow  you  for  the  little-go. 
The  German  scholars  have  improved 
Greek  so  much." 

''  Then,  there  is  the  future,"  said 
the  Very  Young  Man.  "  Just  think  ! 
One  might  invest  all  one's  money, 
leave  it  to  accumulate  at  interest, 
and  hurry  on  ahead." 

"To  discover  a  society,"  said  I, 
"  erected  on  a  strictly  communistic 

basis." 

"  Of  all  the  wild  extravagant 
theories "  began  the  Psychologist. 

"  Yes,  so  it  seemed  to  me,  and  so  I 
never  talked  of  it  until " 

"  Experimental  verification  !  "  cried 
I.     "  You  are  going  to  verify  that!  " 

"  The  experiment  !  "  cried  Filby, 
who  was  getting  brain-weary. 


1 6  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

"  Let's  see  your  experiment,  any- 
how," said  the  Psychologist,  "  though 
it's  all  humbug,  you  know." 

The  Time  Traveler  smiled  round 
at  us.  Then,  still  smiling  faintly, 
and  with  his  hands  deep  in  his 
trousers  pockets,  he  walked  slowly 
out  of  the  room,  and  we  heard  his 
slippers  shuffling  down  the  long  pas- 
sage to  his  laboratory. 

The  Psychologist  looked  at  us. 
'*  I    wonder   what   he's   got  ? " 

"Some  sleight-of-hand  trick  or 
other,"  said  the  Medical  Man,  and 
Filby  tried  to  tell  us  about  a  conjuror 
he  had  seen  at  Burslem,  but  before  he 
had  finished  his  preface  the  Time 
Traveler  came  back,  and  Filby's 
anecdote  collapsed. 

The  thing  the  Time  Traveler  held 
in  his  hand  was  a  glittering  metallic 
framework,  scarcely  larger  than  a 
small  clock,  and  very  delicately  made. 
There  was  ivory  in  it,  and  some 
transparent  crystalline  substance. 
And   now    I   must    be   explicit,   for 


THE  INVENTOR.  17 

this  that  follows — unless  his  explan- 
ation is  to  be  accepted — is  an  abso- 
lutely unaccountable  thing.     He  took 
one   of    the   small   octagonal    tables 
that  were  scattered  about  the  room, 
and  set  it  in  front  of  the  fire,  with 
two  legs  on  the  hearthrug.     On  this 
table    he    placed     the     mechanism. 
Then  he  drew  up   a  chair  and   sat 
down.     The  only  other  object  on  the 
table  was  a  small  shaded  lamp,  the 
bright  light   of  which   fell  full  upon 
the  model.     There  were  also  perhaps 
a  dozen  candles  about,  two  in  brass 
candlesticks   upon    the    mantel   and 
several  in  sconces,  so  that  the  room 
was  brilliantly  illuminated.     I  sat  in 
a  low  armchair  nearest  the  fire,  and  I 
drew  this  forward  so  as  to  be  almost 
between  the  Time  Traveler  and  the 
fireplace.       Filby    sat    behind    him, 
looking    over    his    shoulder.       The 
Medical      Man     and     the     Rector 
watched    him    in    profile    from   the 
right,  the  Psychologist  from  the  left. 
We   were   all   on   the   alert.     It  ap- 


l8  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

pears  incredible  to  me  that  any  kind 
of  trick,  however  subtly  conceived 
and  however  adroitly  done,  could 
have  been  played  upon  us  under 
these  conditions. 

The  Time  Traveler  looked  at  us 
and  then  at  the  mechanism. 

"  Well  ?  "  said  the  Psychologist. 

"  This  little  affair,"  said  the  Time 
Traveler,  resting  his  elbows  upon  the 
table  and  pressing  his  hands  together 
above  the  apparatus,  '*  is  only  a 
model.  It  is  my  plan  for  a  machine 
to  travel  through  Time.  You  will 
notice  that  it  looks  singularly  askew, 
and  that  there  is  an  odd  twinkling 
appearance  about  this  bar,  as  though 
it  was  in  some  way  unreal."  He 
pointed  to  the  part  with  his  finger. 
"  Also,  here  is  one  little  white  lever, 
and  here  is  another." 

The  Medical  Man  got  up  out  of 
his  chair  and  peered  into  the  thing. 
"It's  beautifully  made,"  he  said. 

"  It  took  two  years  to  make,"  re- 
torted   the  Time  Traveler.      Then, 


THE  INVENTOR.  IQ 

when  we  had  all  done  as  the  Medical 
Man,  he  said  :  "  Now  I  want  you 
clearly  to  understand  that  this  lever, 
being  pressed  over,  sends  the  machine 
gliding  into  the  future,  and  this  other 
reverses  the  motion.  This  saddle 
represents  the  seat  of  a  time  traveler. 
Presently  I  am  going  to  press  the 
lever,  and  off  the  machine  will  go. 
It  will  vanish,  pass  into  future  time, 
and  disappear.  Have  a  good  look  at 
the  thing.  Look  at  the  table  too, 
and  satisfy  yourselves  there  is  no 
trickery.  I  don't  want  to  waste  this 
model,  and  then  be  told  I'm  a 
quack." 

There  was  a  minute's  pause 
perhaps.  The  Psychologist  seemed 
about  to  speak  to  me,  but  changed 
his  mind.  Then  the  Time  Traveler 
put  forth  his  finger  toward  the  lever. 
*'  No,"  he  said  suddenly ;  "  lend 
me  your  hand."  And  turning  to  the 
Psychologist,  he  took  that  individual's 
hand  in  his  own  and  told  him  to  put 
out  his   forefinger.     So   that   it   was 


20  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

the  Psychologist  himself  who  sent 
forth  the  model  Time  Machine  on 
its  interminable  voyage.  We  all  saw 
the  lever  turn.  I  am  absolutely  cer- 
tain there  was  no  trickery.  There 
was  a  breath  of  wind,  and  the  lamp 
flame  jumped.  One  of  the  candles 
on  the  mantel  was  blown  out,  and 
the  little  machine  suddenly  swung 
round,  became  indistinct,  was  seen  as 
a  ghost  for  a  second  perhaps,  as  an 
eddy  of  faintly  glittering  brass  and 
ivory  ;  and  it  was  gone — vanished  ! 
Save  for  the  lamp  the  table  was  bare. 

Everyone  was  silent  for  a  minute. 
Then  Filby  said  he  was  d d. 

The  Psychologist  recovered  from 
his  stupor,  and  suddenly  looked 
under  the  table.  At  that  the 
Time  Traveler  laughed  cheerfully. 
"  Well  ? "  he  said,  with  a  reminis- 
cence of  the  Psychologist.  Then, 
getting  up,  he  went  to  the  tobacco 
jar  on  the  mantel,  and  with  his  back 
to  us  began  to  fill  his  pipe. 

AVe  stared  at  each  other. 


THE  INVENTOR.  21 

"Look  here,"  said  the  Medical 
Man,  '*are  you  in  earnest  about  this  ? 
Do  you  seriously  believe  that  that 
machine  has  traveled  into  Time  ?  " 

'*  Certainly,"  said  the  Time  Trav- 
eler, stooping  to  light  a  spill  at  the 
fire.  Then  he  turned,  lighting  his 
pipe,  to  look  at  the  Psychologist's 
face.  (The  Psychologist,  to  show 
that  he  was  not  unhinged,  helped 
himself  to  a  cigar  and  tried  to  light 
it  uncut.)  *'  What  is  more,  I  have  a 
big  machine  nearly  finished  in  there," 
— he  indicated  the  laboratory, — "  and 
when  that  is  put  together  I  mean  to 
have  a  journey  on  my  own  account." 

**  You  mean  to  say  that  that  ma- 
chine has  traveled  into  the  future  ?" 
said  Filby. 

"  Into  the  future  or  the  past — I 
don't,  for  certain,  know  which." 

After  an  interval  the  Psychologist 
had  an  inspiration. 

"  It  must  have  gone  into  the  past 
if  it  has  gone  anywhere,"  he  said. 

"  Why  ?  "  said  the  Time  Traveler. 


22  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

"  Because  I  presume  that  it  has 
not  moved  in  space,  and  if  it  traveled 
into  the  future  it  would  still  be  here 
all  this  time,  since  it  must  have 
traveled  through  this  time." 

"  But,"  said  I,  ''  if  it  traveled  into 
the  past  it  would  have  been  visible 
when  we  came  first  into  this  room  ; 
and  last  Thursday  when  we  were 
here  ;  and  the  Thursday  before  that  ; 
and  so  forth  !  " 

"  Serious  objections,"  remarked 
the  Rector  with  an  air  of  impartiality, 
turning  toward  the  Time  Traveler. 

"  Not  a  bit,"  said  the  Time 
Traveler,  and,  to  the  Psychologist : 
**  You  think.  You  can  explain  that. 
It's  presentation  below  the  threshold, 
you  know,  diluted  presentation." 

"  Of  course,"  said  the  Psychologist, 
and  reassured  us.  '*  That's  a  simple 
point  in  psychology.  I  should  have 
thought  of  it.  It's  plain  enough,  and 
helps  the  paradox  delightfully.  We 
cannot  see  it,  nor  can  we  appreciate 
this  machine,  any  more  than  we  can 


THE  INVENTOR,  23 

the  spoke  of  a  wheel  spinning,  or  a 
bullet  flying  through  the  air.  If  it  is 
traveling  through  time  fifty  times  or 
a  hundred  times  faster  than  we  are, 
if  it  gets  through  a  minute  while  we 
get  through  a  second,  the  impression 
it  creates  will  of  course  be  only  one- 
fiftieth  or  one-hundredth  of  what  it 
would  make  if  it  were  not  traveling 
in  time.  That's  plain  enough."  He 
passed  his  hand  through  the  space  in 
which  the  machine  had  been.  "  You 
see  ? "  he  said  laughing. 

We  sat  and  stared  at  the  vacant 
table  for  a  minute  or  so.  Then  the 
Time  Traveler  asked  us  what  we 
thought   of   it   all. 

"  It  sounds  plausible  enough  to- 
night," said  the  Medical  Man  ;  "but 
wait  until  to-morrow.  Wait  for  the 
common  sense  of  the  morning." 

*'  Would  you  like  to  see  the  Time 
Machine  itself  ? "  asked  the  Time 
Traveler.  And  therewith,  taking  the 
lamp  in  his  hand,  he  led  the  way 
down  the  long,  draughty  corridor  to 


24  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

his  laboratory.  I  remember  vividly 
the  flickering  light,  his  queer,  broad 
head  in  silhouette,  the  dance  of  the 
shadows,  how  we  all  followed  him, 
puzzled  but  incredulous,  and  how 
there  in  the  laboratory  we  beheld  a 
larger  edition  of  the  little  mechanism 
which  we  had  seen  vanish  from  be- 
fore our  eyes.  Parts  were  of  nickel, 
parts  of  ivory,  parts  had  certainly 
been  filed  or  sawn  out  of  rock  crystal. 
The  thing  was  generally  complete, 
but  the  twisted  crystalline  bars  lay 
unfinished  upon  the  bench  beside 
some  sheets  of  drawings,  and  I  took 
one  up  for  a  better  look  at  it. 
Quartz  it  seemed  to  be. 

"  Look  here,"  said  the  Medical 
Man,  "are  you  perfectly  serious? 
Or  is  this  a  trick — like  that  ghost 
you  showed  us  last  Christmas  ? " 

"  Upon  that  machine,"  said  the 
Time  Traveler,  holding  the  lamp 
aloft,  "  I  intend  to  explore  Time.  Is 
that  plain  ?  I  was  never  more  serious 
in  my  life." 


CHAPTER  II. 
XLhc  tlime  traveler  IReturns* 

THINK  that  at   that   time 
none   of  us   quite   believed 

in      the     Time      Machine. 

The  fact  is,  the  Time  Traveler  was 
one     of    those     men    who    are    too 
clever   to   be    believed  ;    you   never 
felt  that  you  saw  all  round  him  ;  you 
always     suspected    some   subtle   re- 
serve, some  ingenuity  in  ambush,  be- 
hind his  lucid  frankness.     Had  Filby 
shown  the  model  and  explained  the 
matter  in  the  Time  Traveler's  words, 
we  should  have  shown  Mm  far  less 
skepticism.     The  point  is,  we  should 
have     seen     his    motives — a     pork- 
butcher     could    understand     Filby. 
But    the   Time   Traveler   had   more 
than    a   touch   of   whim    among   his 
elements,   and    we    distrusted    him. 
Things   that  would  have  made  the 
fame  of  a  clever  man  seemed  tricks 

25 


26  THE    TIME  MACHINE, 

in  his  hands.  It  is  a  mistake  to  do 
things  too  easily.  The  serious  peo- 
ple who  took  him  seriously  never  felt 
quite  sure  of  his  deportment ;  they 
were  somehow  aware  that  trusting 
their  reputations  for  judgment  with 
him  was  like  furnishing  a  nursery 
with  eggshell  china.  So  I  don't 
think  any  of  us  said  very  much  about 
time  traveling  in  the  interval  between 
that  Thursday  and  the  next,  though 
its  odd  potentialities  ran,  no  doubt, 
in  most  of  our  minds  :  its  plausibility, 
that  is,  its  practical  incredibleness, 
the  curious  possibilities  of  anachro- 
nism and  of  utter  confusion  it  sug- 
gested. For  my  own  part,  I  was 
particularly  preoccupied  with  the 
trick  of  the  model.  That  I  remem- 
ber discussing  with  the  Medical  Man, 
whom  I  met  on  Friday  at  the  Lin- 
nsean.  He  said  he  had  seen  a  similar 
thing  at  Tubingen,  and  laid  consider- 
able stress  on  the  blowing-out  of  the 
candle.  But  how  the  trick  was  done 
he  could  not  explain. 


THE    TIME    TRAVELER  RETURNS.       27 

The  next  Thursday  I  went  again 
to  Richmond — I  suppose  I  was  one 
of  the  Time  Traveler's  most  constant 
guests — and,  arriving  late,  found  four 
or  five  men  already  assembled  in  his 
drawing  room.  The  Medical  Man 
was  standing  before  the  fire  with  a 
sheet  of  paper  in  one  hand  and  his 
watch  in  the  other.  I  looked  round 
for  the  Time  Traveler,  and — - 

"  It's  half-past  seven  now,"  said 
the  Medical  Man.  "  I  suppose  we'd 
better  have  dinner  ?  " 

**  Where's ?"  said   I,  naming 

our   host. 

"You've  just  come?  It's  rather 
odd.  He's  unavoidably  detained. 
He  asks  me  in  his  note  to  lead  off 
with  dinner  at  seven  if  he's  not  back. 
Says  he'll  explain  when  he  comes." 

"  It's  seems  a  pity  to  let  the  dinner 
spoil,"  said  the  Editor  of  a  well- 
known  daily  paper  ;  and  thereupon 
the  Doctor  rang  the  bell. 

The  Psychologist  was  the  only  per- 
son besides  the  Doctor  and  myself 


28  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

who  had  attended  the  previous  din- 
ner. The  other  men  were  Blank,  the 
Editor  afore-mentioned,  a  certain 
journalist,  and  another — a  quiet,  shy 
man  with  a  beard — whom  I  didn't 
know,  and  who,  as  far  as  my  observa- 
tion went,  never  opened  his  mouth 
all  the  evening.  There  was  some 
speculation  at  the  dinner-table  about 
the  Time  Traveler's  absence,  and  I 
suggested  time  traveling,  in  a  half- 
jocular  spirit.  The  Editor  wanted 
that  explained  to  him,  and  the  Psy- 
chologist volunteered  a  wooden  ac- 
count of  the  "  ingenious  paradox  and 
trick  "  we  had  witnessed  that  day 
week.  He  was  in  the  midst  of  his 
exposition  when  the  door  from  the 
corridor  opened  slowly  and  without 
noise.  I  was  facing  the  door,  and 
saw  it   first. 

"Hallo!"  I  said.     "At  last!" 
And  the  door  opened  wider,  and 
the  Time  Traveler  stood  before  us. 
I  gave  a  cry  of  surprise. 

"  Good  Heavens,  man  !  what's  the 


THE    TIME    TRAVELER  RETURNS.      29 

matter  ? "  cried  the  Medical  Man, 
who  saw  him  next.  And  the  whole 
tableful  turned  toward  the  door. 

He  was  in  an  amazing  pHght.  His 
coat  was  dusty  and  dirty,  and  smeared 
with  green  down  the  sleeves  ;  his 
hair  disordered,  and  as  it  seemed  to 
me  grayer — either  with  dust  and  dirt 
or  because  its  color  had  actually 
faded.  His  face  was  ghastly  pale ; 
his  chin  had  a  brown  cut  on  it— a 
cut  half-healed  ;  his  expression  was 
haggard  and  drawn,  as  by  intense 
suffering.  For  a  moment  he  liesitated 
in  the  doorway,  as  if  he  had  been 
dazzled  by  the  light.  Then  he  came 
into  the  room.  He  walked  with  just 
such  a  limp  as  I  have  seen  in  foot- 
sore tramps.  We  stared  at  him  in 
silence,  expecting  him   to  speak. 

He  said  not  a  word,  but  came  pain- 
fully to  the  table,  and  made  a  motion 
toward  the  wine.  The  Editor  filled 
a  glass  of  champagne  and  pushed  it 
toward  him.  He  drained  it,  and  it 
seemed  to  do  him  good  ;  for  he  looked 


30  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

round  the  table,  and  the  ghost  of  his 
old    smile   flickered  across  his  face. 

"  What  on  earth  have  you  been  up 
to,  man  ? "  said  the  Doctor. 

The  Time  Traveler  did  not  seem  to 
hear.  "  Don't  let  me  disturb  you,"  he 
said,  with  a  certain  faltering  articula- 
tion. "  I'm  all  right."  He  stopped, 
held  out  his  glass  for  more,  and  took  it 
off  at  a  draught.  "  That's  good,"  he 
said.  His  eyes  grew  brighter,  and  a 
faint  color  came  into  his  cheeks.  His 
glance  flickered  over  our  faces  with 
a  certain  dull  approval,  and  then  went 
round  the  warm  and  comfortable 
room.  Then  he  spoke  again,  still  as 
it  were  feeling  his  way  among  his 
words.  *'  I'm  going  to  wash  and 
dress,  and  then  I'll  come  down  and 
explain  things.  Save  me  some  of 
that  mutton.  I'm  starving  for  a  bit 
of  meat." 

He  looked  across  at  the  Editor, 
who  was  a  rare  visitor,  and  hoped  he 
was  all  right.  The  Editor  began  a 
question. 


THE   TIME   TRAVELER  RETURNS.      31 

**  Tell  you  presently,"  said  the  Time 
Traveler.  ''I'm — funny!  Be  all 
right   in   a   minute." 

He  put  down  his  glass,  and  walked 
toward  the  staircase  door.  Again  I 
remarked  his  lameness  and  the  soft 
padding  sound  of  his  footfall,  and 
standing  up  in  my  place  I  saw  his 
feet  as  he  went  out.  He  had  nothing 
on  them  but  a  pair  of  tattered,  blood- 
stained socks.  Then  the  door  closed 
upon  him.  I  had  half  a  mind  to  fol- 
low, till  I  remembered  how  he  de- 
tested any  fuss  about  himself.  For  a 
minute,  perhaps,  my  mind  was  wool 
gathering.  Then,  "  Remarkable  Be- 
havior of  an  Eminent  Scientist,"  I 
heard  the  Editor  say,  thinking  (after 
his  wont)  in  headlines.  And  this 
brought  my  attention  back  to  the 
bright    dinner   table. 

"  What's  the  game  ? "  said  the 
Journalist.  "  Has  he  been  doing  the 
Amateur  Cadger  ?     I  don't  follow." 

I  met  the  eye  of  the  Psychologist, 
and  read  my  own  interpretation  in 


32  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

his  face.  I  thought  of  the  Time 
Traveler  limping  painfully  upstairs. 
I  don't  think  anyone  else  had  noticed 
his  lameness. 

The  first  to  recover  completely 
from  this  surprise  was  the  Medical 
Man,  who  rang  the  bell — the  Time 
Traveler  hated  to  have  servants  wait- 
ing at  dinner — for  a  hot  plate.  At 
that  the  Editor  turned  to  his  knife 
and  fork  with  a  grunt,  and  the  Silent 
Man  followed  suit.  The  dinner  was 
resumed.  Conversation  was  exclam- 
atory for  a  little  while,  with  gaps  of 
wonderment  ;  and  then  the  Editor 
got  fervent  in  his  curiosity. 

"  Does  our  friend  eke  out  his  mod- 
est income  with  a  crossing,  or  has  he 
his  Nebuchadnezzar  phases  ? "  he 
inquired. 

"  I  feel  assured  it's  this  business  of 
the  Time  Machine,"  I  said,  and  took 
up  the  Psychologist's  account  of  our 
previous  meeting. 

The  new  guests  were  frankly  incred- 
ulous.    The  Editor  raised  objections. 


THE   TIME   TRAVELER  RETURNS.      33 

"  What  was  this  time  traveling  ? 
A  man  couldn'tcover  himself  with  dust 
by  rolling  in  a  paradox,  could  he?" 

And  then,  as  the  idea  came  home  to 
him,  he  resorted  to  caricature.  Hadn't 
they  any  clothes-brushes  in  the  Future? 
The  Journalist,  too,  would  not  be- 
lieve at  any  price,  and  joined  the 
Editor  in  the  easy  work  of  heaping 
ridicule  on  the  whole  thing.  They 
were  both  the  new  kind  of  Journalist 
— very  joyous,  irreverent  young  men. 
"  Our  Special  Correspondent  in  the 
Day  After  To-Morrow  reports,"  the 
Journalist  was  saying — or  rather 
shouting — when  the  Time  Traveler 
came  back.  He  was  dressed  in  ordi- 
nary evening  clothes,  and  nothing 
save  his  haggard  look  remained  of 
the  change  that  had  startled  me. 

"I  say," said  the  Editor  hilariously, 
"  these  chaps  here  say  you  have 
been  traveling  into  the  middle  of 
next  week  !  Tell  us  all  about  little 
Rosebery,  will  you  ?  What  will  you 
take  for  the  lot  ?  " 


34  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

The  Time  Traveler  came  to  the 
place  reserved  for  him  without  a 
word.  He  smiled  quietly,  in  his  old 
way. 

"  Where's  ray  mutton  ? "  he  said. 
•*  What  a  treat  it  is  to  stick  a  fork 
into  meat  again  !  " 

*'  Story  !"  cried  the  Editor. 

''Story  be  d d  !"  said  the  Time 

Traveler.  "  I  want  something  to  eat. 
I  won't  say  a  word  until  I  get  some 
peptone  into  my  arteries.  Thanks .' 
And  the  salt." 

"One  word,"  said  I.  *'  Have  you 
been  time  traveling  ?" 

"  Yes,"  said  the  Time  Traveler, 
with  his  mouth  full,  nodding  his  head. 

"  I'd  give  a  shilling  a  line  for  a 
verbatim  note,"  said  the  Editor.  The 
Time  Traveler  pushed  his  glass 
toward  the  Silent  Man  and  rang  it 
with  his  finger  nail ;  at  which  the 
Silent  Man,  who  had  been  staring 
at  his  face,  started  convulsively,  and 
poured  him  wine.  The  rest  of  the 
dinner  was  uncomfortable.     For  my 


THE   TIME   TRAVELER  RETURNS.      35 

own  part,  sudden  questions  kept  on 
rising  to  my  lips,  and  I  dare  say  it 
was  the  same  with  the  others.  The 
Journalist  tried  to  relieve  the  tension 
by  telling  anecdotes  of  Hettie  Potter. 
The  Time  Traveler  devoted  his  at- 
tention to  his  dinner,  and  displayed 
the  appetite  of  a  tramp.  The  Medi- 
cal Man  smoked  a  cigarette,  and 
watched  the  Time  Traveler  through 
his  eyelashes.  The  Silent  Man 
seemed  even  more  clumsy  than  usual, 
and  drank  champagne  with  regularity 
and  determination  out  of  sheer  nerv- 
ousness. At  last  the  Time  Traveler 
pushed  his  plate  away,  and  looked 
round  us. 

"I  suppose  I  must  apologize," 
he  said.  "  I  was  simply  starving. 
I've  had  a  most  amazing  time."  He 
reached  out  his  hand  for  a  cigar, 
and  cut  the  end.  "  But  come  into 
the  smoking  room.  It's  too  long  a 
story  to  tell  over  greasy  plates."  And 
ringing  the  bell  in  passing,  he  led  the 
way  into  the  adjoining  room. 


36  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

"  You  have  told  Blank  and  Dash 
and  Chose  about  the  machine?"  he 
said  to  me,  leaning  back  in  his  easy- 
chair  and  naming  the  three  new- 
guests. 

"  But  the  thing's  a  mere  paradox," 
said  the  Editor. 

*'  I  can't  argue  to-night.  I  don't 
mind  telling  you  the  story,  but  I  can't 
argue.  I  will,"  he  went  on,  *'  tell 
you  the  story  of  what  has  happened 
to  me,  if  you  like,  but  you  must  re- 
frain from  interruptions.  I  want  to 
tell  it.  Badly.  Most  of  it  will 
sound  like  lying.  So  be  it !  It's 
true^— every  word  of  it,  all  the  same. 
I   was    in    my    laboratory    at    four 

o'clock,    and     since    then I've 

lived  eight  days — such  days  as  no 
human  being  ever  lived  before ! 
I'm  nearly  worn  out,  but  I  shan't 
sleep  till  I've  told  this  thing  over  to 
you.  Then  I  shall  go  to  bed.  But 
no  interruptions  !     Is  it  agreed  ?  " 

"  Agreed  !"  said  the  Editor,  and 
the   rest   of   us   echoed  "  Agreed  !  " 


THE    TIME    TRAVELER  RETURNS.      37 

And  with  that  the  Time  Traveler 
began  his  story  as  I  have  set  it  forth. 
He  sat  back  in  his  chair  at  first,  and 
spoke  like  a  weary  man.  Afterward 
he  got  more  animated.  In  writing  it 
down  I  feel  with  only  too  much  keen- 
ness the  inadequacy  of  pen  and  ink — 
and,  above  all,  my  own  inadequacy — 
to  express  its  quality.  You  read,  I 
will  suppose,  attentively  enough  ;  but 
you  cannot  see  the  speaker's  white, 
sincere  face  in  the  bright  circle  of  the 
little  lamp,  nor  hear  the  intonation 
of  his  voice.  You  cannot  know  how 
his  expression  followed  the  turns  of 
his  story  !  Most  of  us  hearers  were 
in  shadow,  for  the  candles  in  the 
smoking  room  had  not  been  lighted, 
and  only  the  face  of  the  Journalist 
and  the  legs  of  the  Silent  Man  from 
the  knees  downward  were  illumin- 
ated. At  first  we  glanced  now  and 
again  at  each  other.  After  a  time  we 
ceased  to  do  that,  and  looked  only 
at  the  Time  Traveler's  face. 


CHAPTER  III. 

TOLD  some  of  you  last 
Thursday  of  the  principles 
of  the  Time  Machine,  and 
showed  you  the  actual  thing  itself, 
incomplete,  in  the  workshop.  There 
it  is  now,  a  little  travel-worn,  truly  ; 
and  one  of  the  ivory  bars  is  cracked, 
and  a  brass  rail  bent ;  but  the  rest  of 
it  is  sound  enough.  I  expected  to 
finish  it  on  Friday  ;  but  on  Friday, 
when  the  putting  together  was  nearly 
done,  I  found  that  one  of  the  nickel 
bars  was  exactly  one  inch  too  short, 
and  this  I  had  to  get  re-made  ;  so 
that  the  thing  was  not  complete  until 
this  morning.  It  was  at  ten  o'clock 
to-day  that  the  first  of  all  Time  Ma- 
chines began  its  career.  I  gave  it 
a  last  tap,  tried  all  the  screws  again, 
38 


THE  STORY  BEGINS.  39 

put  one  more  drop  of  oil  on  the 
quartz  rod,  and  sat  myself  in  the 
saddle.  I  suppose  a  suicide  who 
holds  a  pistol  to  his  skull  feels  much 
the  same  wonder  at  what  will  come 
next  as  I  felt  then.  I  took  the  start- 
ing lever  in  one  hand  and  the  stop- 
ping one  in  the  other,  pressed  the 
first,  and  almost  immediately  the 
second.  I  seemed  to  reel  ;  I  felt  a 
nightmare  sensation  of  falling  ;  and, 
looking  round,  I  saw  the  laboratory 
exactly  as  before.  Had  anything 
happened  ?  For  a  moment  I  sus- 
pected that  my  intellect  had  tricked 
me.  Then  I  noted  the  clock.  A 
moment  before,  as  it  seemed,  it  had 
stood  at  a  minute  or  so  past  ten  ; 
now  it  was  nearly  half-past  three  ! 

**  I  drew  a  breath,  set  my  teeth, 
gripped  the  starting  lever  with  both 
my  hands,  and  went  off  with  a  thud. 
The  laboratory  got  hazy  and  went 
dark.  Mrs.  Watchett  came  in,  and 
walked,  apparently  without  seeing 
me,  toward  the  garden  door.     I  sup- 


40  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

pose  it  took  her  a  minute  or  so  to 
traverse  the  place,  but  to  me  she 
seemed  to  shoot  across  the  room  Uke 
a  rocket.  I  pressed  the  lever  over 
to  its  extreme  position.  The  night 
came  like  the  turning  out  of  a  lamp, 
and  in  another  moment  came  to- 
morrow. The  laboratory  grew  faint 
and  hazy,  then  fainter  and  ever 
fainter.  To-morrow  night  came 
black,  then  day  again,  night  again, 
day  again,  faster  and  faster  still.  An 
eddying  murmur  filled  my  ears  and 
a  strange,  dumb  confusedness  de- 
scended   on  my  mind. 

"  I  am  afraid  I  cannot  convey  the 
peculiar  sensations  of  time-traveling. 
They  are  excessively  unpleasant. 
There  is  a  feeling  exactly  like  that 
one  has  upon  a  switchback — of  a 
helpless  headlong  motion  !  I  felt  the 
same  horrible  anticipation,  too,  of 
an  imminent  smash.  [As  I  put  on 
pace,  day  followed  night,  like  the 
flap,  flap,  flap  of  some  rotating  body. 
The  dim  suggestion  of  the  laboratory 


THE  STORY  BEGINS.  41 

seemed  presently  to  fall  away  from 
me,  and  I  saw  the  sun  hopping  swiftly 
across  the  sky,  leaping  it  every 
minute,  and  every  minute  marking  a 
day.  I  supposed  the  laboratory  had 
been  destroyed,  and  I  had  come  into 
the  open  air.  |  I  had  a  dim  impression 
of  scaffolding,  but  I  was  already  go- 
ing too  fast  to  be  conscious  of  any 
moving  things.  The  slowest  snail 
that  ever  crawled  dashed  by  too  fast 
for  me.  The  twinkling  succession  of 
darkness  and  light  was  excessively 
painful  to  the  eye.  Then  in  the 
intermittent  darkness,  I  saw  the 
moon  spinning  swiftly  through  her 
quarters  from  new  to  full,  and  had  a 
faint  glimpse  of  the  circling  stars. 
Presently,  as  I  went  on,  still  gaining 
velocity,  the  palpitation  of  night  and 
day  merged  into  one  continuous 
grayness  ;  the  sky  took  on  a  wonder- 
ful deepness  of  blue,  a  splendid  lumi- 
nous color  like  that  of  early  twilight  ; 
the  jerking  sun  became  a  streak  of 
fire,  a   brilliant  arch   in   space,  the 


42  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

moon  a  fainter  fluctuating  band  ;  and 
I  could  see  nothing  of  the  stars,  save 
now  and  then  a  brighter  circle  flicker- 
ing in  the  blue. 

\  *'The  landscape  was  misty  and 
vague.  I  was  still  on  the  hillside 
upon  which  this  house  now  stands, 
and  the  shoulder  rose  above  me  gray 
and  dim.  I  saw  trees  growing  and 
changing  like  puffs  of  vapor,  now 
brown,  now  green  ;  they  grew, 
spread,  fluctuated,  and  passed  away. 
I  saw  huge  buildings  rise  up  faint 
and  fair,  and  pass  like  dreams.  The 
whole  surface  of  the  earth  seemed 
changing — melting  and  flowing  under 
my  eyes.  \  The  little  hands  upon  the 
dials  that  registered  my  speed  raced 
round  faster  and  faster.  Presently  I 
noted  that  the  sun  belt  swayed  up  and 
down,  from  solstice  to  solstice,  in  a 
minute  or  less,  and  that,  conse- 
quently, my  pace  was  over  a  year 
a  minute  ;  and  minute  by  minute 
the  white  snow  flashed  across  the 
world    and  vanished,    and   was   fol- 


THE  STORY  BEGINS.  43 

lowed  by  the  bright,  brief  green  of 
spring. 

*'  The  unpleasant  sensations  of  the 
start  were  less  poignant  now.  They 
merged  at  last  into  a  kind  of  hyster- 
ical exhilaration.  I  remarked,  in- 
deed, a  clumsy  swaying  of  the 
machine,  for  which  I  was  unable  to 
account.  But  my  mind  was  too 
confused  to  attend  to  it,  so  with  a 
kind  of  madness  growing  upon  me 
I  flung  myself  into  futurity.  At  first 
I  scarce  thought  of  stopping,  scarce 
thought  of  anything  but  these  new 
sensations.  But  presently  a  fresh 
series  of  impressions  grew  up  in  my 
mind, — a  certain  curiosity,  and  there- 
with a  certain  dread, — until  they  at 
last  took  complete  possession  of  me. 
What  strange  developments  of  hu- 
manity, what  wonderful  advances 
upon  our  rudimentary  civilization,  I 
thought,  might  not  appear  when  I 
came  to  look  nearly  into  the  dim, 
elusive  world  that  raced  and  fluctu- 
ated before  my  eyes  !     I  saw  great 


44  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

and  splendid  architectures  rising 
about  me,  more  massive  than  any 
buildings  of  our  own  time,  and  yet, 
as  it  seemed,  built  of  glimmer  and 
mist.  I  saw  a  richer  green  flow  up 
the  hillside,  and  remain  there  with- 
out any  wintry  intermission.  Even 
through  the  veil  of  my  confusion  the 
earth  seemed  very  fair.  And  so  my 
mind  came  round  to  the  business  of 
stopping. 

*'  The  peculiar  risk  lay  in  the  pos- 
sibility of  my  finding  some  substance 
in  the  space  which  I,  or  the  machine, 
occupied.  So  long  as  I  traveled  at 
a  high  velocity  through  time,  this 
scarcely  mattered  :  I  was,  so  to 
speak,  attenuated — was  slipping  like 
a  vapor  through  the  interstices  of 
intervening  substances  !  But  to 
come  to  a  stop  involved  the  jamming 
of  myself,  molecule  by  molecule,  into 
whatever  lay  in  my  way,  meant 
bringing  my  atoms  into  such  in- 
timate contact  with  those  of  the 
obstacle   that   a   profound   chemical 


THE  STORY  BEGINS.  45 

reaction — possibly      a     far-reaching 
explosion — would    result,    and   blow 
myself  and  my  apparatus  out  of  the 
Rigid  Universe — out   of  all  possible 
dimensions — into  the  Unknown.  This 
possibility  had  occurred  to  me  again 
and   again  while    I    was  making  the 
machine  ;  but  then   I  had  cheerfully 
accepted  it  as  an  unavoidable  risk- 
one  of  the  risks   a   man  has  got  to 
take  !     Now  the  risk  was  inevitable, 
I  no  longer  saw  it  in  the  same  cheer- 
ful   hght.      The  fact  is  that,  insen- 
sibly,   the    absolute    strangeness    of 
everything,    the    sickly   jarring    and 
swaying   of  the   machine,    above  all 
the  feeling  of  prolonged  falling,  had 
absolutely   upset   my  nerve.     I   told 
myself  that  I  could  never  stop,  and 
with  a  gust  of   petulance  I  resolved 
to  stop  forthwith.     Like  an  impatient 
fool,    I    lugged  over  the  lever,    and 
incontinently  the  thing  went  reeling 
over,    and    I    was    flung     headlong 
through  the  air 

"  There  was  the  sound  of  a  clap 


46  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

of  thunder  in  my  ears.  I  may  have 
been  stunned  for  a  moment.  A  pit- 
iless hail  was  hissing  round  me,  and 
I  was  sitting  on  soft  turf  in  front 
of  the  overset  machine.  Everything 
still  seemed  gray,  but  presently  I 
remarked  that  the  confusion  in  my 
ears  was  gone.  I  looked  round  me. 
I  was  on  what  seemed  to  be  a  little 
lawn  in  a  garden,  surrounded  by 
rhododendron  bushes,  and  I  noticed 
that  their  mauve  and  purple  blos- 
soms were  dropping  in  a  shower  un- 
der the  beating  of  the  hailstones. 
The  rebounding,  dancing  hail  hung 
in  a  little  cloud  over  the  machine, 
and  drove  along  the  ground  like 
smoke.  In  a  moment  I  was  wet  to 
the  skin.  '  Fine  hospitality,'  said  I, 
*  to  a  man  who  has  traveled  innumer- 
able years  to  see  you  !  ' 

"  Presently  I  thought  what  a  fool 
I  was  to  get  wet.  I  stood  up  and 
looked  round  me.  A  colossal  figure, 
carved  apparently  in  some  white 
stone,    loomed    indistinctly    beyond 


THE  STORY  BEGINS.  47 

the  rhododendrons  through  the  hazy- 
downpour.  But  all  else  of  the  world 
was  invisible. 

"  My  sensations  would  be  hard  to 
describe.  As  the  columns  of  hail 
grew  thinner,  I  saw  the  white  fig- 
ure more  distinctly.  It  was  very 
large,  for  a  silver  birch  tree  touched 
its  shoulder.  It  was  of  white  marble, 
in  shape  something  like  a  winged 
sphinx,  but  the  wings,  instead  of 
being  carried  vertically  at  the  sides, 
were  spread  so  that  it  seemed  to 
hover.  The  pedestal,  it  appeared  to 
me,  was  of  bronze,  and  was  thick 
with  verdigris.  It  chanced  that  the 
face  was  toward  me  ;  the  sightless 
eyes  seemed  to  watch  me  ;  there  was 
the  faint  shadow  of  a  smile  on  the 
lips.  It  was  greatly  weatherworn, 
and  that  imparted  an  unpleasant  sug- 
gestion of  disease.  I  stood  looking 
at  it  for  a  little  space — half  a  minute, 
perhaps,  or  half  an  hour.  It  seemed 
to  advance  and  to  recede  as  the  hail 
drove  before   it  denser  or  thinner. 


48  THE  TIME  MACHINE. 

At  last  I  tore  my  eyes  from  it  for  a 
moment,  and  saw  that  the  hail  cur- 
tain had  worn  threadbare,  and  that 
the  sky  was  lightening  with  the  prom- 
ise of  the  sun. 

"  I  looked  up  again  at  the  crouch- 
ing v/hite  shape,  and  the  full  te- 
merity of  my  voyage  came  suddenly 
upon  me.  What  might  appear  when 
that  hazy  curtain  was  altogether 
withdrawn  ?  What  might  not  have 
happened  to  men  ?  What  if  cruelty 
had  grown  into  a  common  passion  ? 
What  if  in  this  interval  the  race  had 
lost  its  manliness,  and  had  developed 
into  something  inhuman,  unsympa- 
thetic, and  overwhelmingly  powerful  ? 
I  might  seem  some  old-world  savage 
animal,  only  the  more  dreadful  and 
disgusting  for  our  common  likeness — 
a  foul  creature  to  be  incontinently 
slain. 

"  Already  I  saw  other  vast  shapes 
— huge  buildings  with  intricate  para- 
pets and  tall  columns,  with  a  wooded 
hillside  dimly  creeping  in  upon  me 


THE  STORY  BEGINS.  49 

through  the  lessening  storm.  I  was 
seized  with  a  panic  fear.  I  turned 
frantically  to  the  Time  Machine,  and 
strove  hard  to  readjust  it.  As  I  did 
so  the  shafts  of  the  sun  smote  through 
the  thunderstorm.  The  gray  down- 
pour was  swept  aside  and  vanished 
like  the  trailing  garments  of  a  ghost. 
Above  me,  in  the  intense  blue  of 
the  summer  sky,  some  faint  brown 
shreds  of  clouds  whirled  into  noth- 
ingness. The  great  buildings  about 
me  stood  out  clear  and  distinct,  shin- 
ing with  the  wet  of  the  thunderstorm, 
and  picked  out  in  white  by  the  un- 
melted  hailstones  piled  along  their 
courses.  I  felt  naked  in  a  strange 
world.  I  felt  as  perhaps  a  bird  may 
feel  in  the  clear  air,  knowing  the 
hawk  wings  above  and  will  swoop.  My 
fear  grew  to  frenzy.  I  took  a  breath- 
ing space,  set  my  teeth,  and  again 
grappled  fiercely,  wrist  and  knee,  with 
the  machine.  It  gave  under  my  des- 
perate onset  and  turned  over.  It 
struck  my  chin  violently.     One  hand 


50  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

on  the  saddle,  the  other  on  the  lever, 
I  stood  panting  heavily  in  attitude  to 
mount  again. 

"But  with  fhis  recovery  of  a 
prompt  retreat  my  courage  recovered. 
I  looked  more  curiously  and  less  fear- 
fully at  this  world  of  the  remote 
future.  In  a  circular  opening,  high 
up  in  the  wall  of  the  nearer  house,  I 
saw  a  group  of  figures  clad  in  rich 
soft  robes.  They  had  seen  me,  and 
their  faces  were  directed  toward  me. 

"  Then  I  heard  voices  approaching 
me.  Coming  through  the  bushes  by 
the  white  sphinx  were  the  heads  and 
shoulders  of  men  running.  One  of 
these  emerged  in  a  pathway  leading 
straight  to  the  little  lawn  upon  which 
I  stood  with  my  machine.  He  was 
a  slight  creature — perhaps  four  feet 
high — clad  in  a  purple  tunic,  girdled 
at  the  waist  with  a  leather  belt.  San- 
dals or  buskins — I  could  not  clearly 
distinguish  which — whereon  his  feet ; 
his  legs  were  bare  to  the  knees,  and 
his  head  was  bare.     Noticing  that,  I 


THE  STORY  BEGINS.  5^ 

noticed  for  the  first  time  how  warm 
the  air  was. 

"  He  struck  me  as  being  a  very 
beautiful  and  graceful  creature,  but 
indescribably  frail.  His  flushed  face 
reminded  me  of  the  more  beautiful 
kind  of  consumptive— that  hectic 
beauty  of  which  we  used  to  hear  so 
much.  At  the  sight  of  him  I  sud- 
denly regained  confidence.  I  took 
my  hands  from  the  machine. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

^be  (5olDen  Bae. 

N  another  moment  we  were 
standing  face  to  face,  I  and 
this  fragile  thing  out  of 
futurity.  He  came  straight  up  to 
me  and  laughed  into  my  eyes.  The 
absence  of  any  signof  fear  from  his 
bearing  struck  me  at  once.  Then 
he  turned  to  the  two  others  who 
were  following  him  and  spoke  to 
them  in  a  strange  and  very  sweet 
and   liquid   tongue. 

"There  were  others  coming,  and 
presently  a  little  group  of  perhaps 
eight  or  ten  of  these  exquisite  crea- 
tures were  about  me.  One  of  them 
addressed  me.  It  came  into  my 
head,  oddly  enough,  that  my  voice 
was  too  harsh  and  deep  for  them.  So 
I  shook  my  head,  and  pointing  to  my 

52 


THE  GOLDEN  AGE.  53 

ears,  shook  it  again.  He  came  a  step 
forward,  hesitated,  and  then  touched 
my  hand.  Then  I  felt  other  soft 
little  tentacles  upon  my  back  and 
shoulders.  They  wanted  to  make 
sure  I  was  real.  There  was  nothing 
in  this  at  all  alarming.  Indeed, 
there  was  something  in  these  pretty 
little  people  that  inspired  confid- 
ence— a  graceful  gentleness,  a  certain 
childlike  ease.  And  besides,  they 
looked  so  frail  that  I  could  fancy  my- 
self flinging  the  whole  dozen  of  them 
about  like  ninepins.  But  I  made 
a  sudden  motion  to  warn  them  when 
I  saw  their  little  pink  hands  feeling 
at  the  Time  Machine.  Happily  then, 
when  it  was  not  too  late,  I  thought 
of  a  danger  I  had  hitherto  forgotten, 
and  reaching  over  the  bars  of  the 
machine  I  unscrewed  the  little  levers 
that  would  set  it  in  motion,  and  put 
these  in  my  pocket.  Then  I  turned 
again  to  see  what  I  could  do  in  the 
way  of  communication. 

"And  then,  looking   more   nearly 


54  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

into  their  features,  I  saw  some  further 
peculiarities  in  their  Dresden  china 
type  of  prettiness.  Their  hair,  which 
was  uniformly  curly,  came  to  a  sharp 
end  at  the  neck  and  cheek  ;  there 
was  not  the  faintest  suggestion  of 
it  on  the  face,  and  their  ears  were 
singularly  minute.  The  mouths 
were  small,  with  bright  red,  rather 
thin  lips,  and  the  little  chins  ran  to 
a  point.  The  eyes  were  large  and 
mild  ;  and — this  may  seem  egotism 
on  my  part — I  fancied  even  then  that 
there  was  a  certain  lack  of  the  inter- 
est I  might  have  expected  in  them. 

"  As  they  made  no  effort  to  com- 
municate with  me,  but  simply  stood 
round  me  smiling  and  speaking  in 
soft  cooing  notes  to  each  other,  I 
began  the  conversation.  I  pointed 
to  the  Time  Machine  and  to  myself. 
Then,  hesitating  for  a  moment  how 
to  express  Time,  I  pointed  to  the 
sun.  At  once  a  quaintly  pretty  little 
figure  in  checkered  purple  and  white, 
followed  my  gesture,  and  then  aston- 


THE  GOLDEN  AGE.  5S 

ished  me  by  imitating  the  sound  of 
thunder. 

"  For  the  moment  I  was  staggered, 
though  the  import  of  his  gesture 
was  plain  enough.  The  question 
had  come  into  my  mind  abruptly  : 
Were  these  creatures  fools  ?  You  may 
hardly  understand  how  it  took  me. 
You  see  I  had  always  anticipated 
Jthat  the  people  of  the  year  Eight 
Hundred  Thousand  odd  would  be 
incredibly  in  front  of  us  in  knowl- 
edge, art,  everything.  Then  one  of  "v, 
them  suddenly  asked  me  a  question 
that  showed  him  to  be  on  the  intel- 
lectual level  of  one  of  our  five-year- 
old  children — asked  me,  in  fact,  if 
I  had  come  from  the  sun  in  a  thun- 
derstorm !  It  let  loose  the  judgment 
I  had  suspended  upon  their  clothes, 
their  frail,  light  limbs,  and  fragile 
features.  A  flow  of  disappointment 
rushed  across  my  mind.  For  a  mo- 
ment I  felt  that  I  had  built  the  Time 
Machine  in  vain. 

"I   nodded,   pointed   to   the  sun, 


\ 


56  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

and  gave  them  such  a  vivid  render- 
ing of  a  thunderclap  as  startled  them. 
They  all  withdrew  a  pace  or  so  and 
bowed.  Then  came  one  laughing 
toward  me,  carrying  a  chain  of 
beautiful  flowers,  altogether  new  to 
me,  and  put  it  about  my  neck.  The 
idea  was  received  with  melodious 
applause  ;  and  presently  they  were 
all  running  to  and  fro  for  flowers, 
and  laughingly  flinging  them  upon 
me  until  I  was  almost  smothered 
with  blossom.  You  who  have  never 
seen  the  like  can  scarcely  imagine 
what  delicate  and  wonderful  flowers 
countless  years  of  culture  had 
created.  Then  someone  suggested 
that  their  plaything  should  be  ex- 
hibited in  the  nearest  building,  and 
so  I  was  led  past  the  sphinx  of  white 
marble,  which  had  seemed  to  watch 
me  all  the  while  with  a  smile  at  my 
astonishment,  toward  a  vast  gray 
edifice  of  fretted  stone.  As  I  went 
with  them  the  memory  of  my  confi- 
dent anticipations   of  a  profoundly 


THE   GOLDEN  AGE.  57 

grave  and  intellectual  posterity  came, 
with  irresistible  merriment,  to  my 
mind. 

**  The  building  had  a  large  entry 
and  was  altogether  of  colossal  dimen- 
sions. I  was  naturally  most  occu- 
pied with  the  growing  crowd  of  little 
people,  and  with  the  big  open  portals 
that  yawned  before  me  shadowy  and 
mysterious.  My  general  impression 
of  the  world  I  saw  over  their  heads 
was  of  a  tangled  waste  of  beautiful 
bushes  and  flowers,  a  long  neglected 
and  yet  weedless  garden.  I  saw 
a  number  of  tall  spikes  of  strange 
white  flowers,  measuring  a  foot  per- 
haps across  the  spread  of  the  waxen 
petals.  They  grew  scattered,  as  if 
wild,  among  the  variegated  shrubs, 
but,  as  I  say,  I  did  not  examine  them 
closely  at  this  time.  The  Time 
Machine  was  left  deserted  on  the 
turf  among  the  rhododendrons. 

"  The  arch  of  the  doorway  was 
richly  carved,  but  naturally  I  did 
not  observe   the  carving    very  nar- 


58  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

rowly,  though  I  fancied  I  saw  sugges- 
tions of  old  Phoenician  decorations 
as  I  passed  through,  and  it  struck  me 
that  they  were  very  badly  broken  and 
weather-worn.  Several  more  brightly 
clad  people  met  me  in  the  doorway, 
and  so  we  entered,  I,  dressed  in  dingy 
nineteenth  century  garments,  looking 
grotesque  enough,  garlanded  with 
flowers,  and  surrounded  by  an  ed- 
dying mass  of  bright,  soft-colored 
robes  and  shining  white  limbs,  in 
a  melodious  whirl  of  laughter  and 
laughing  speech. 

"  The  big  doorway  opened  into  a 
proportionately  great  hall  hung  with 
brown.  The  roof  was  in  shadow,  and 
the  windows,  partially  glazed  with 
colored  glass,  and  partially  unglazed, 
admitted  a  tempered  light.  The 
floor  was  made  up  of  huge  blocks  of 
some  very  hard  white  metal,  not 
plates  nor  slabs — blocks,  and  it  was 
so  much  worn,  as  I  judged  by  the 
going  to  and  fro  of  past  generations, 
as  to  be  deeply  channeled  along  the 


THE  GOLDEN  AGE.  59 

more  frequented  ways.  Transverse 
to  the  length  were  innumerable  tables 
made  of  slabs  of  polished  stone, 
raised,  perhaps,  a  foot  from  the  floor, 
and  upon  these  were  heaps  of  fruits. 
Some  I  recognized  as  a  kind  of  hyper- 
trophied  raspberry  and  orange,  but 
for  the  most  part  they  were  strange. 

"  Between  the  tables  were  scattered 
a  great  number  of  cushions.  Upon 
these  my  conductors  seated  them- 
selves, signing  for  me  to  do  likewise. 
With  a  pretty  absence  of  ceremony 
they  began  to  eat  the  fruit  with  their 
hands,  flinging  peel,  and  stalks,  and  so 
forth,  into  the  round  openings  in  the 
sides  of  the  tables.  I  was  not  loth 
to  follow  their  example,  for  I  felt 
thirsty  and  hungry.  As  I  did  so  I 
surveyed  the  hall  at  my  leisure. 

"  And  perhaps  the  thing  that  struck 
me  most  was  its  dilapidated  look. 
The  stained-glass  windows,  which 
displayed  only  a  geometrical  pat- 
tern, were  broken  in  many  places, 
and  the  curtains  that  hung  across  the 


6o  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

lower  end  were  thick  with  dust. 
And  it  caught  my  eye  that  the 
corner  of  the  marble  table  near  me 
was  fractured.  Nevertheless,  the 
general  effect  was  extremely  rich  and 
picturesque.  There  were,  perhaps,  a 
couple  of  hundred  people  dining  in 
the  hall,  and  most  of  them,  seated  as 
near  to  me  as  they  could  come,  were 
watching  me  with  interest,  their  little 
eyes  shining  over  the  fruit  they  were 
eating.  All  were  clad  in  the  same 
'Soft,  and  yet  strong,  silky  material. 

**  Fruit,  by  the  bye,  was  all  their 
diet.  These  people  of  the  remote 
future  were  strict  vegetarians,  and 
while  I  was  with  them,  in  spite  of 
some  carnal  cravings,  I  had  to  be 
frugivorous  also.  Indeed,  I  found 
afterward  that  horses,  cattle,  sheep, 
dogs,  had  followed  the  ichthyosaurus 
into  extinction.  But  the  fruits  were 
very  delightful  ;  one,  in  particular, 
that  seemed  to  be  in  season  all  the 
time  I  was  there, — a  floury  thing  in 
a  three-sided  husk, — was   especially 


THE  GOLDEN  AGE.  6l 

good,  and  I  made  it  my  staple.  At 
first  I  was  puzzled  by  all  these 
strange  fruits,  and  by  the  strange 
flowers  I  saw,  but  later  I  began  to 
perceive  their  import. 

"  However,  I  am  telling  you  of  my 
fruit  dinner  in  the  distant  future  now. 
So  soon  as  my  appetite  was  a  little 
checked,  I  determined  to  make  a 
resolute  attempt  to  learn  the  speech 
of  these  new  men  of  mine.  Clearly 
that  was  the  next  thing  to  do.  The 
fruits  seemed  a  convenient  thing  to 
begin  upon,  and  holding  one  of  these 
up  I  began  a  series  of  interrogative 
sounds  and  gestures.  I  had  some 
considerable  difficulty  in  conveying 
my  meaning.  At  first  my  efforts  met 
with  a  stare  of  surprise  or  inextin- 
guishable laughter,  but  presently  a 
fair-haired  little  creature  seemed  to 
grasp  my  intention  and  repeated  a 
name.  They  had  to  chatter  and 
explain  their  business  at  great  length 
to  each  other,  and  my  first  attempts 
to  make  their  exquisite  little  sounds 


62  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

of  the  language  caused  an  immense 
amount  of  genuine,  if  uncivil  amuse- 
ment. However,  I  felt  like  a  school- 
master amid  children,  and  per- 
sisted, and  presently  I  had  a  score 
of  noun  substantives  at  least,  at  my 
command  ;  and  then  I  got  to  demon- 
strative pronouns,  and  even  the  verb 
*  to  eat.'  But  it  was  slow  work,  and 
the  little  people  soon  tired  and 
wanted  to  get  away  from  my  inter- 
rogations, so  I  determined,  rather  of 
necessity,  to  let  them  give  their 
lessons  in  little  doses  when  they  felt 
inclined.  And  very  little  doses  I 
found  they  were  before  long,  for  I 
never  met  people  more  indolent  or 
more  easily  fatigued. 

•u 


CHAPTER  V. 
Qnmct 

QUEER  thing  I  soon  dis- 
covered about  my  little 
hosts,  and  that  was  their 
lack  of  interest.  They  would  come 
to  me  with  eager  cries  of  astonish- 
ment, like  children,  but,  like  children, 
they  would  soon  stop  examining  me, 
and  wander  away  after  some  other 
toy.  The  dinner  and  my  conversa- 
tional beginnings  ended,  I  noted  for 
the  first  time  that  almost  all  those 
who  had  surrounded  me  at  first  were 
gone.  It  is  odd,  too,  how  speedily 
I  came  to  disregard  these  little 
people.  I  went  out  through  the 
portal  into  the  sunlit  world  again  as 
soon  as  my  hunger  was  satisfied.  I 
was  continually  meeting  more  of  these 
men  of  the  future,  who  would  follow 
63 


64  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

me  a  little  distance,  chatter  and 
laugh  about  me,  and,  having  smiled 
and  gesticulated  in  a  friendly  way, 
leave  me  again  to  my  own  devises. 

"  The  calm  of  evening  was  upon 
the  world  as  I  emerged  from  the 
great  hall,  and  the  scene  was  lit  by  the 
warm  glow  of  the  setting  sun.  At  first 
things  were  very  confusing.  Every^ 
thing  was  so  entirely  different  from 
the  world  I  had  known — even  the 
flowers.  The  big  building  I  had  left 
was  situated  on  the  slope  of  a  broad 
river  valley,  but  the  Thames  had 
shifted,  perhaps  a  mile  from  its 
present  position.  I  resolved  to 
mount  to  the  summit  of  a  crest,  pos- 
sibly a  mile  and  a  half  away,  from 
which  I  could  get  a  wider  view  of 
this  our  planet  in  the  year  802,701,^ 
A.  D.  For  that,  I  should  explain, 
was  the  date  the  little  dials  of  my 
machine  recorded. 

**  As  1  walked  I  was  watchful  of 
every  impression  that  could  possibly 
help    to    explain    the    condition    of 


SUNSET.  65 

ruinous  splendor  in  which  I  found 
the  world — for  ruinous  it  was.  A 
little  way  up  the  hill,  for  instance, 
was  a  great  heap  of  granite,  bound 
together  by  masses  of  aluminum,  a 
vast  labyrinth  of  precipitous  walls 
and  crumbled  heaps,  amid  which 
were  thick  heaps  of  very  beautiful 
pagoda-like  plants — nettles  possibly, 
but  wonderfully  tinted  with  brown 
about  the  leaves,  and  incapable  of 
stinging.  It  was  evidently  the  dere- 
lict remains  of  some  vast  structure, 
built  to  what  end  I  could  not  deter- 
mine. It  was  here  that  I  was  des- 
tined, at  a  later  date,  to  have  a  very 
strange  experience — the  first  intima- 
tion of  a  still  stranger  discovery — 
but  of  that  I  will  speak  in  its  proper 
place. 

"  Looking  round,  with  a  sudden 
thought, from  a  terrace  on  which  I  had 
rested  for  a  while,  I  realized  that  there 
were  no  small  houses  to  be  seen. 
Apparently  the  single  house,  and 
possibly   even    the    household,    had 


66  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

vanished.  Here  and  there  among 
the  greenery  were  palace-like  build- 
ings, but  the  house  and  the  cottage, 
which  form  such  characteristic  fea- 
tures of  our  own  English  landscape, 
had  disappeared. 

"  *  Communism,'  said  I  to  myself. 

"And  on  the  heels  of  that  came 

another  thought.     I    looked    at    the 

half   dozen   little    figures   that   were  \ 

following   me.     Then,    in    a  flash,  I J  f^ 

perceived  that  all  had  the  same  form  /   (^ 

of   costume,  the   same   soft   hairless '' 

.    .  .  \ 

visage,  and  the  same  girlish  rotundity         '^^ 

of  limb.  It  may  seem  strange,  per- 
haps, that  I  had  not  noticed  this 
before.  But  everything  was  so 
strange.  Now,  I  saw  the  fact  plainly 
enough.  In  costume,  and  in  all  the 
differences  of  texture  and  bearing 
that  now  mark  off  the  sex  from  each 
other,  these  people  of  the  future  were 
alike.  And  the  children  seemed  to 
my  eyes  to  be  but  the  miniatures  of 
their  parents.  I  judged  then  that 
children  of  that  time  were  extremely 


SUNSET.  67 

precocious,  physically  at  least,  and  I 
found  afterward  abundant  verifica- 
tion of  my  opinion. 

''  Seeing  the  ease  and  security  in 
which  these  people  were  living,  1  felt 
that  this  close  resemblance  of  the 
sexes  was,  after  all,  what  one  would 
expect ;  for  the  strength  of  a  man 
and  the  softness  of  a  woman,  the  in- 
stitution of  the  family,  and  the  differ- 
entiation of  occupations  are  mere 
militant  necessities  of  an  age  of 
physical  force.  Where  population  is 
balanced  and  abundant,  much  child- 
bearing  becomes  an  evil  rather  than 
a  blessing  to  the  State  ;  where  vio- 
lence comes  but  rarely  and  offspring 
are  secure,  there  is  less  necessity —  . 
indeed  there  is,  no  .necessity— of  an 
efficient  family,  and  the  specialization  /J' 
-of  the  sexes  with  reference  to  their  \ 
Qhildren's  needs  disappears.  We  see 
some  beginnings  of  this  even  in  our 
own  time,  and  in  this  future  age  it  was 
complete.  This,  I  must  remind  you, 
was    my    speculation    at    the    time. 


68  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

Later,  I  was  to  appreciate  how  far  it 
fell  short  of  the  reality. 

"  While  I  was  musing  upon  these 
things,  my  attention  was  attracted  by 
a  pretty  little  structure,  like  a  well 
under  a  cupola.  I  thought  in  a  tran- 
sitory way  of  the  oddness  of  wells 
still  existing,  and  then  resumed  the 
thread  of  my  speculations.  There 
were  no  large  buildings  toward  the 
top  of  the  hill,  and  as  my  walking 
powers  were  evidently  miraculous,  I 
was  presently  left  alone  for  the  first 
time.  With  a  strange  sense  of  free- 
dom and  adventure  I  pushed  up  to 
the  crest. 

"  There  I  found  a  seat  of  some 
yellow  metal  that  I  did  not  recognize, 
corroded  in  places  with  a  kind  of 
pinkish  rust  and  half  smothered  in 
soft  moss,  the  arm  rests  cast  and 
filed  into  the  resemblance  of  griffins' 
heads.  I  sat  down  on  it,  and  I  sur- 
veyed the  broad  view  of  our  old 
world  under  the  sunset  of  that  long 
day.     It  was  as  sweet  and  fair  a  view 


SUNSET.  69 

as  I  have  ever  seen.  The  sun  had„ 
already  gone  below  the  horizon  and 
the  west  was  flaming  gold,  touched 
with  some  horizontal  bars  of  purple 
and  crimson.  Below  was  the  valley 
of  the  Thames,  in  which  the  river 
lay  like  a  band  of  burnished  steel. 
I  have  ready  spoken  of  the  great 
palaces  dotted  about  among  the 
variegated  greenery,  some  in  ruins 
and  some  still  occupied.  Here  and 
there  rose  a  white  or  silvery  figure  in 
the  waste  garden  of  the  earth,  here 
and  there  came  the  sh.iirp  vertical 
line  of  some  cupola  or  obelisk. 
There  were  no  hedges,  no  signs  of 
proprietary  rights,  no  evidences  of 
agriculture ;  the  whole  earth  had 
become  a  garden. 

"  So  watching,  I  began  to  put  my 
interpretation  upon  the  things  I  had 
seen,  and  as  it  shaped  itself  to  me  that 
evening,  my  interpretation  was  some- 
thing in  this  way  (afterward  I  found 
I  had  got  only  a  half  truth,  or  only 
a  glimpse  of  one  facet  of  the  truth)  : 


^' 


70  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

"  It  seemed  to  me  that  I  had  hap- 
'^  pened  upon" humanity  upon  the  wane. 
The  ruddy  sunset  set  me  thinking  of 
the  sunset  of  mankind.  For  the  first 
time  I  began  to  realize  an  odd  con- 
sequence of  the  social  effort  in  which 
we  are  at  present  engaged.  And  yet, 
come  to  think,  it  is  a  logical  conse- 
quence enough.  Strength  is  the 
outcome  of  need  ;  security  sets  a 
premium  on  feebleness.  The  work 
of  ameliorating  the  conditions  of 
life — the  true  civilizing  process  that 
makes  life  more  and  more  secure — 
had  gone  steadily  on  to  a  climax. 
One  triumph  of  a  united  humanity 
over  Nature  had  followed  another. 
Things  that  are  now  mere  dreams 
had  become  projects  deliberately  put 
in  hand  and  carried  forward.  And 
the  harvest  was  what  I  saw  ! 

"  After  all,  the  sanitation  and  the 
agriculture  of  to-day  are  still  in  the 
rudimentary  stage.  The  science  of 
our  time  has  attacked  but  a  little  de- 
partment of  the  field  of  human  dis- 


SUNSET.  71 

ease,  but,  even  so,  it  spreads  its 
operations  very  steadily  and  persist- 
ently. Our  agriculture  and  horticul- 
ture destroy  just  here  and  there  a 
weed  and  cultivate  perhaps  a  score 
or  so  of  wholesome  plants,  leaving 
the  greater  number  to  fight  out  a 
balance  as  they  can.  We  improve 
our  favorite  plants  and  animals — and 
how  few  they  are — gradually  by 
selective  breeding  ;  now  a  new  and 
better  peach,  now  a  seedless  grape, 
now  a  sweeter  and  larger  flower,  now 
a  more  convenient  breed  of  cattle. 
We  improve  them  gradually,  because 
our  ideals  are  vague  and  tentative, 
and  our  knowledge  is  very  limited  ; 
because  Nature,  too,  is  shy  and  slow 
in  our  clumsy  hands.  Some  day  all 
this  will  be  better  organized,  and  still 
better.  That  is  the  drift  of  the  cur- 
rent in  spite  of  the  eddies.  The 
whole  world  will  be  intelligent,  edu- 
cated, and  co-operating  ;  things  will 
move  faster  and  faster  toward  the 
subjugation  of  Nature.     In  the  end, 


72  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

wisely  and  carefully  we  shall  read- 
just the  balance  of  animal  and  vege- 
table life  to  suit  our  human  needs. 

"  This  adjustment,  I  say,  must  have 
been  done,  and  done  well  :  done  in- 
deed for  all  time,  in  the  space  of 
Time  across  which  my  machine  had 
leaped.  The  air  was  free  from  gnats, 
the  earth  from  weeds  or  fungi  ;  every- 
where were  fruits  and  sweet  and 
delightful  flowers  ;  brilliant  butter- 
flies flew  hither  and  thither.  The 
ideal  of  preventive  medicine  was 
attained.  Diseases  had  been  stamped 
out.  I  saw  no  evidence  of  any  con- 
tagious diseases  during  all  my  stay. 
And  I  shall  have  to  tell  you  later  that 
even  the  processes  of  putrefaction 
and  decay  had  been  profoundly 
affected   by  these   changes. 

"  Social  triumphs,  too,  had  been 
effected.  I  saw  mankind  housed  in 
splendid  shelters,  gloriously  clothed, 
and  as  yet  I  had  found  them  engaged 
in  no  toil.  There  were  no  signs  of 
struggle,  neither  social  nor  economi- 


SUNSET.  73 

cal  struggle.  The  shop,  the  adver- 
tisement, traffic,  all  that  commerce 
which  constitutes  the  body  of  our 
world,  was  gone.  It  was  natural  on 
that  golden  evening  that  I  should 
jump  at  the  idea  of  a  social  paradiae. 

"  The  difficulty  of  increasing  popu-| 
lation  had  been  met,  I  guessed,  anq| 
population  had  ceased  to  increase.    '1 

''  But  with  this  change  in  condition 
comes  inevitably  adaptations  to  the 
change.  What,  unless  biological 
science  is  a  mass  of  errors,  is  the 
cause    of    human   intelligence    and  L 

vigor  ?      Hardship     and      freedom  :      t}^^'*^^af 
conditions  under  which    the  active,    v 
strong,  and   subtle  survive  and   the  ij. 

weaker  go  to  the  wall  ;  conditions 
that  put  a  premium  upon  the  loyal 
alliance  of  capable  men,  upon  self- 
restraint,  patience,  and  decision.  And 
the  institution  of  the  family,  and  the 
emotions  that  arise  therein,  the  fierce 
jealousy,  the  tenderness  for  offspring, 
parental  self-devotion,  all  found  their 
justification  and  support  in  the  immi- 


74  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

nent  dangers  of  the  young.  Now, 
where  are  those  imminent  dangers  ? 
There  is  a  sentiment  arising,  and  it 
will  grow,  against  connubial  jealousy, 
against  fierce  maternity,  against  pas- 
sion of  all  sorts  ;  unnecessary  things 
now,  and  things  that  make  us  uncom- 
fortable, savage  survivals,  discords  in 
a  refined  and  pleasant  life. 

''  I  thought  of  the  physical  slight- 
ness  of  the  people,  their  lack  of  in- 
telligence, and  those  big  abundant 
ruins,  and  it  strengthened  my  belief 
in  a  gpilect  c^^quest  of  Nature. 
For  after  the  battle  comes  Quiet. 
Humanity  had  been  strong,  energetic, 
and  intelligent,  and  had  used  all  its 
abundant  vitality  to  alter  the  condi- 
tions under  which  it  lived.  And 
now  came  the  -reaction  of  the  altered 
conditions.' 

"  Under  the  new  conditions  of  per- 
fect comfort  and  security,  that  rest- 
less energy,  that  with  us  is  strength, 
would  become  weakness.  Even  in 
our  own  time  certain  tendencies  and 


SUNSET.  75 

desires,  once  necessary  to  survival, 
are  a  constant  source  of  failure. 
Physical  courage  and  the  love  of 
battle,  for  instance,  are  no  great  help 
— may  even  be  hindrances — to  a 
civilized  man.  And  in  a  state  of 
physical  balance  and  security,  power, 
intellectual  as  well  as  physical,  would 
be  out  of  place.  For  countless  years 
I  judged  there  had  beeniio  danger' 
of  war  or  solitary  violence,  no  danger 
from  wild  beasts,  no  wasting  disease. 
to  require  strength  of  constitution,! 
no  need  of  toil.  For  such  a  life,? 
what  we  should  call  the  weak  are  asi 
well  equipped  as  the  strong,  are, 
indeed,  no  longer  weak.  Better 
equipped  indeed  they  are,  for  the 
strong  would  be  fretted  by  an  energy 
for  which  there  was  no  outlet.  No 
doubt  the  exquisite  beauty  of  the 
buildings  I  saw  was  the  outcome  of 
the  last  surgings  of  the  now  purpose- 
less energy  of  mankind  before  it 
settled  down  into  perfect  harmony 
with  the  conditions  under  which  it 


76  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

lived — the   flourish   of  that  triumph 

which   began   the   last   great   peace. 

-t"  This  has  ever  been  the  fate  of  energy 

!     in    security  ;  it   takes  to  art  and  to 

J    eroticism,   and   then    come    languor 

i_and  decay. 

"  Even  this  artistic  impetus  would 
at  last  die  away — had  almost  died  in 
the  Time  I   saw.     To   adorn  them- 
selves with  flowers,  to  dance,  to  sing 
in    the   sunlight ;    so    much  was  left 
^        of   the   artistic  spirit,  and  no  more. 
^^'   /     Even   that  would   fade   in   the   end 
•^  /      into  a  contented  inactivity.     We  are 
kept  keen  on  the  grindstone  of  pain 
and  necessity,  and  it  seemed  to  me 
that  here  was  that  hateful  grindstone 
broken  at  last ! 

"  As  I  stood  there  in  the  gathering 
dark  I  thought  that  in  this  simple  ex- 
planation I  had  mastered  the  problem 
of  the  world — mastered  the  whole 
secret  of  these  delicious  people. 
Possibly  the  checks  they  had  devised 
for  the  increase  of  population  had 
succeeded  too  well,  and  their  num- 


SUNSET.  77 

bers  had  rather  diminished  than  kept 
stationary.  That  would  account  for 
the  abandoned  ruins.  Very  simple 
was  my  explanation,  and  plausible 
enough — as  most  wrong  theories  are. 

**  As  I  stood  there  musing  over  this 
too  perfect  triumph  of  man,  the  full 
moon,  yellow  and  gibbous,  came  up 
out  of  an  overflow  of  silver  light  in 
the  northeast.  The  bright  little  fig- 
ure ceased  to  move  about  below,  a 
noiseless  owl  flitted  by,  and  I  shiv- 
ered with  the  chill  of  the  night.  I 
determined  to  descend  and  find  where 
I  could  sleep. 

"  I  looked  for  the  building  I  knew. 
Then  my  eye  traveled  along  to  the 
figure  of  the  white  sphinx  upon  the 
pedestal  of  bronze,  growing  distinct 
as  the  light  of  the  rising  moon  grew 
brighter.  I  could  see  the  silver  birch 
against  it.  There  was  the  tangle  of 
rhododendron  bushes,  black  in  the 
pale  light,  and  there  was  the  little 
lawn.  I  looked  at  the  lawn  again. 
A    queer    doubt     chilled    my    com- 


7^  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

placency.  *  No,'  said  I  stoutly  to 
myself,  *  that  was  not  the  lawn.' 

'*  But  it  ivas  the  lawn.  For  the 
white  leprous  face  of  the  sphinx  was 
toward  it.  Can  you  imagine  what  I 
felt  as  this  conviction  came  home  to 
me  ?  But  you  cannot.  The  Time 
Machine  was  gone  ! 

"  At  once,  like  a  lash  across  the 
face,  came  the  possibility  of  losing 
my  own  age,  of  being  left  helpless 
in  this  strange  new  world.  The  bare 
thought  of  it  was  an  actual  physical 
sensation.  I  could  feel  it  grip  me  at 
the  throat  and  stop  my  breathing. 


CHAPTER  VL 

trbe  /Iftacbine  16  %obU 

N  another  moment  I  was 
in  a  passion  of  fear,  and 
running  with  great,  leap- 
ing strides  down  the  slope.  Once 
I  fell  headlong  and  cut  my  face.  I 
lost  no  time  in  stanching  the  blood, 
but  jumped  up  and  ran  on,  with  a 
warm  trickle  down  my  cheek  and 
chin.  All  the  time  I  ran  I  was  say- 
ing to  myself  :  '  They  have  moved  it 
a  little — pushed  it  under  the  bushes 
out  of  the  way.'  Nevertheless,  I  ran 
with  all  my  might.  All  the  time, 
with  the  certainty  that  sometimes 
comes  with  excessive  dread,  I  knew 
that  such  assurance  was  folly,  knew 
instinctively  that  the  machine  was 
removed   out  of  my  reach. 

"  My   breath   came  with   pain.     I 

79 


8o  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

suppose  I  covered  the  whole  dis- 
tance, from  the  hill  crest  to  the  little 
lawn,  two  miles  perhaps,  in  ten  min- 
utes. And  I  am  not  a  young  man. 
I  cursed  aloud  as  I  ran  at  my  confi- 
dent folly  in  leaving  the  machine, 
wasting  good  breath  thereby.  I 
cried  aloud,  and  none  answered. 
Not  a  creature  seemed  to  be  stirring 
in  that  moonlit  world. 

"  When  I  reached  the  lawn  my 
worst  fears  were  realized.  Not  a 
trace  of  the  thing  was  to  be  seen. 
I  felt  faint  and  cold  when  I  faced 
the  empty  space  among  the  black 
tangle  of  bushes.  I  ran  round  it 
furiously,  as  if  the  thing  might  be 
hidden  in  a  corner,  and  then  stopped 
abruptly  with  my  hands  clutching 
my  hair.  Above  me  towered  the 
sphinx  upon  the  bronze  pedestal, 
white,  shining,  leprous  in  the  light 
of  the  rising  moon.  It  seemed  to 
smile   in  mockery  of  my  dismay. 

"  I  might  have  consoled  myself  by 
imagining  the  little  people  had  put 


THE  MACHINE  IS  LOST.  8 1 

the  mechanism  in  some  shelter  for 
me,  had  not  I  felt  assured  of  their 
physical  and  intellectual  inadequacy. 
That  is  what  dismayed  me  :  the  sense 
of  some  hitherto  unsuspected  power 
through  whose  intervention  my  in- 
vention had  vanished.  Yet  of  one 
thing  I  felt  assured :  unless  some 
other  age  had  produced  its  exact 
duplicate,  the  machine  could  not 
have  moved  in  Time.  The  attach- 
ment of  the  levers — I  will  show  you 
the  method  later — prevented  anyone 
from  tampering  with  it  in  that  way 
when  they  were  removed.  It  had  been 
moved,  and  was  hid,  only  in  Space. 
But,  then,  where  could  it  be  ? 

"  I  think  I  must  have  had  a  kind 
of  frenzy.  I  remember  running  vio- 
lently in  and  out  among  the  moonlit 
bushes  all  round  the  sphinx,  and 
startling  some  white  animal  that  in 
the  dim  light  I  took  for  a  small  deer. 
I  remember,  too,  late  that  night,  beat- 
ing the  bushes  with  my  clenched 
fists  until  my  knuckles  were  gashed 


82  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

and  bleeding  from  the  broken 
twigs. 

'^  Then,  sobbing  and  raving  in  my 
anguish  of  mind,  I  went  down  to  the 
great  building  of  stone.  The  big 
hall  was  dark,  silent,  and  deserted. 
I  slipped  on  the  uneven  floor  and  fell 
over  one  of  the  malachite  tables, 
almost  breaking  my  shin.  I  lit  a 
match  and  went  on  past  the  dusty 
curtains  of  which   I   have  told  you. 

"  There  I  found  a  second  great  hall 
covered  with  cushions,  upon  which 
perhaps  a  score  or  so  of  the  little  peo- 
ple were  sleeping.  I  have  no  doubt 
they  found  my  second  appearance 
strange  enough,  coming  suddenly  out 
of  the  quiet  darkness  with  inarticulate 
noises  and  the  splutter  and  flare  of 
a  match.  For  they  had  forgotten 
about  matches.  *  Where  is  my  Time 
Machine  ? '  I  began,  bawling  like  an 
angry  child,  laying  hands  upon  them 
and  shaking  them  up  together.  It 
must  have  been  very  queer  to  them. 
Some  laughed,  most  of  them  looked 


THE  MACHINE  IS  LOST.  83 

sorely  frightened.  When  I  saw  them 
standing  round  me,  it  came  into  my 
head  that  I  was  doing  as  foolish  a 
thing  as  it  was  possible  for  me  to  do 
under  the  circumstances,  in  trying 
to  revive  the  sensation  of  fear.  For 
reasoning  from  the  daylight  behavior 
I  thought  that  fear  must  be  for- 
gotten. 

"  Abruptly  I  dashed  down  the 
match,  and  knocking  one  of  the  people 
over  in  my  course,  went  blundering 
across  the  big  dining  hall  again  out 
under  the  moonlight.  I  heard  cries 
of  terror  and  their  little  feet  running 
and  stumbling  this  way  and  that. 
I  do  not  remember  all  I  did  as  the 
moon  crept  up  the  sky.  I  suppose  it 
was  the  unexpected  nature  of  my 
loss  that  maddened  me.  I  felt  hope- 
lessly cut  off  from  my  own  kind, 
a  strange  animal  in  an  unknown 
world.  I  must  have  raved  to  and 
fro,  screaming  and  crying  upon  God 
and  Fate.  I  have  a  memory  of 
horrible  fatigue,  as  the  long  night  of 


84  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

despair  wore  away,  of  looking  in  this 
innpossible  place  and  that,  of  grop- 
ing among  moonlit  ruins  and  touch- 
ing strange  creatures  in  the  black 
shadows  ;  at  last,  of  lying  on  the 
ground  near  the  sphinx  and  weeping 
with  absolute  wretchedness,  even 
anger  at  the  folly  of  leaving  the 
machine  having  leaked  away  with 
my  strength.  I  had  nothing  left  but 
misery. 

**  Then  I  slept,  and  when  I  woke 
again  it  was  full  day,  and  a  couple 
of  sparrows  were  hopping  around 
me  upon  the  turf  within  reach  of 
my  arm. 

"  I  sat  up  in  the  freshness  of  the 
morning  trying  to  remember  how 
I  had  got  there,  and  why  I  had  such 
a  profound  sense  of  desertion  and 
despair.  Then  things  came  clear  in 
my  mind.  With  the  plain,  reasonable 
daylight  I  could  look  my  circum- 
stances fairly  in  the  face.  I  saw  the 
wild  folly  of  my  frenzy  overnight, 
and  I  could  reason  with  myself. 


THE  MACHINE  IS  LOST.  8S 

*^  *  Suppose  the  worst,'  said  I,  'sup- 
pose the  machine  altogether  lost — 
perhaps  destroyed.  It  behooves  me 
to  be  calm  and  patient,  to  learn  the 
way  of  the  people,  to  get  a  clear  idea 
of  the  method  of  my  loss  and  the 
means  of  getting  materials  and  tools  ; 
so  that  in  the  end,  perhaps,  I  may 
make  another.  That  would  be  my 
only  hope,  a  poor  hope,  perhaps,  but 
better  than  despair.  And,  after  all, 
it  was  a  beautiful  and  curious  world. 

"  *  But  probably  the  machine  had 
only  been  taken  away.  Still,  I  must 
be  calm  and  patient,  find  its  hiding 
place,  and  recover  it  by  force  or 
cunning.'  And  with  that  I  scrambled 
to  my  feet  and  looked  about  me, 
wondering  where  I  could  bathe.  I 
felt  weary,  stiff,  and  travel-soiled. 
The  freshness  of  the  morning  made 
me  desire  an  equal  freshness.  I  had 
exhausted  my  emotion.  Indeed,  as 
I  went  about  my  business,  I  found 
myself  wondering  at  my  intense  ex- 
citement overnight. 


86  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

"  That  morning  I  made  a  careful 
examination  of  the  ground  about  the 
little  lawn.  I  wasted  some  time  in 
futile  questionings  conveyed  as  well 
as  I  was  able  to  such  of  the  little 
people  as  came  by.  They  all  failed 
to  understand  my  gestures — some 
were  simply  stolid  ;  some  thought  it 
was  a  jest,  and  laughed  at  me.  I 
had  the  hardest  task  in  the  world  to 
keep  my  hands  off  their  pretty,  laugh- 
ing faces.  It  was  a  foolish  impulse, 
but  the  devil  begotten  of  fear  and 
blind  anger  was  ill  curbed,  and  still 
eager  to  take  advantage  of  my  per- 
plexity. The  turf  gave  better  coun- 
sel. I  found  a  groove  ripped  in  it, 
about  midway  between  the  pedestal 
of  the  sphinx  and  the  marks  of  my 
feet  where,  on  arrival,  I  had  struggled 
with  the  overturned  machine.  There 
were  other  signs  of  the  removal  of 
a  heavy  body  about,  of  queer,  narrow 
footprints  like  those  I  could  imagine 
made  by  a  sloth.  This  directed  my 
closer  attention  to  the  pedestal.     It 


THE  MACHINE  IS  LOST.  87 

was,  as  I  think  I  have  said,  of  bronze. 
It  was  not  a  mere  block,  but  highly- 
decorated  with  deep-framed  panels 
on  either  side.  I  went  and  rapped 
at  these.  The  pedestal  was  hollow. 
Examining  the  panels  with  care,  I 
found  them  discontinuous  with  the 
frames.  There  were  no  handles  nor 
keyholes,  but  possibly  the  panels,  if 
they  were  doors,  as  I  supposed,  opened 
from  within.  One  thing  was  clear 
enough  to  my  mind.  It  took  no  very- 
great  mental  effort  to  infer  that  my 
Time  Machine  was  inside  that  ped- 
estal. But  how  it  got  there  was  a 
different  problem. 

"  I  saw  the  heads  of  two  orange-clad 
people  coming  through  the  bushes 
and  under  some  blossom-covered 
apple  trees  toward  me.  I  turned, 
smiling,  to  them,  and  beckoned  them 
to  me.  They  came,  and  then,  point- 
ing to  the  bronze  pedestal,  I  tried  to 
intimate  my  wish  to  open  it.  But  at 
my  first  gesture  toward  this,  they  be- 
haved very  oddly.     I  don't  know  how 


88  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

to  convey  their  expression  to  you. 
Suppose  you  were  to  use  a  grossly 
improper  gesture  to  a  delicate-minded 
woman — it  is  how  she  would  look. 
They  went  off  as  if  they  had  received 
the  last  possible  insult. 

*'  However,  I  wanted  access  to  the 
Time  Machine  ;  so  I  tried  a  sweet- 
looking  little  chap  in  white  next,  with 
exactly  the  same  result.  Somehow, 
his  manner  made  me  ashamed  of 
myself.  But,  as  I  say,  I  wanted  the 
Time  Machine.  I  tried  one  more. 
As  he  turned  off  like  the  others,  my 
temper  got  the  better  of  me.  In 
three  strides  I  was  after  him,  had  him 
by  the  loose  part  of  his  robe  round 
the  neck,  and  began  dragging  him 
toward  the  sphinx.  Then  I  saw  the 
horror  and  repugnance  of  his  face, 
and  all  of  a  sudden  I  let  him  go. 

**  But  I  was  not  beaten  yet.  I 
banged  with  my  fist  at  the  bronze 
panels.  I  thought  I  heard  something 
stir  inside — to  be  explicit,  I  thought 
I  heard  a  sound  like  a  chuckle — but 


THE  MACHINE  IS  LOST.  89 

I  must  have  been  mistaken.  Then  I 
got  a  big  pebble  from  the  river,  and 
came  and  hammered  till  I  had  flat- 
tened a  coil  in  the  decorations,  and 
the  verdegris  came  off  in  powdery 
flakes.  The  delicate  little  people 
must  have  heard  me  hammering  in 
gusty  outbreaks  a  mile  away  on  either 
hand,  but  nothing  came  of  it.  I  saw 
a  crowd  of  them  upon  the  slopes, 
looking  furtively  at  me.  At  last,  hot 
and  tired,  I  sat  down  to  watch  the 
place.  But  I  was  too  restless  to 
watch  long,  and,  besides,  I  am  too 
Occidental  for  a  long  vigil.  I  could 
work  at  a  problem  for  years,  but  to 
wait  inactive  for  twenty-four  hours — 
that  is  another  matter. 

**  I  got  up  after  a  time,  and  began 
walking  aimlessly  through  the  bushes 
toward  the  hill  again. 

"  *  Patience,'  said  I  to  myself.  *  If 
you  want  your  machine  again,  you 
must  leave  that  sphinx  alone.  If 
they  mean  to  take  your  machine 
away,  it's  little  good  your  wrecking 


90  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

their  bronze  panels,  and  if  they  don't, 
you  will  get  it  back  so  soon  as  you 
can  ask  for  it.  To  sit  among  all 
those  unknown  things  before  a  puzzle 
like  that  is  hopeless.  That  way  lies 
monomania.  Face  this  world.  Learn 
its  ways  ;  watch  it ;  be  careful  of  too 
hasty  guesses  at  its  meaning.  In  the 
end  you  will  find  clews  to  it  all.' 

"  Then  suddenly  the  humor  of  the 
situation  came  into  my  mind  :  the 
thought  of  the  years  I  had  spent  in 
study  and  toil  to  get  into  the  future 
age,  and  now  my  passion  of  anxiety 
to  get  out  of  it.  I  had  made  myself 
the  most  complicated  and  the  most 
hopeless  trap  that  ever  a  man  devised. 
Although  it  was  at  my  own  expense, 
I  could  not  help  myself.  I  laughed 
aloud. 

*'  Going  through  the  big  palace  it 
seemed  to  me  that  the  little  people 
avoided  me.  It  may  have  been 
my  fancy,  or  it  may  have  had 
something  to  do  with  my  hammering 
at  the  gates  of  bronze.     Yet  I  felt 


THE  MACHINE  IS  LOST.  9 1 

tolerably  sure  of  the  avoidance.  I 
was  careful,  however,  to  show  no 
concern,  and  to  abstain  from  any 
pursuit  of  them,  and  in  the  course  of 
a  day  or  two  things  got  back  to  the 
old  footing. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

tTbe  Strange  BnimaL 

MADE  what  progress  I 
could  in  the  language,  and 
in  addition  I  pushed  my  ex- 
plorations here  and  there.  Eitiier  I 
missed  some  subtle  point  or  their 
language  was  excessively  simple,  al- 
most exclusively  composed  of  con- 
crete substantives  and  verbs.  There 
seemed  to  be  few,  if  any,  abstract 
terms,  or  little  use  of  figurative  lan- 
guage. Their  sentences  were  usually 
simple  and  of  two  words,  and  I  failed 
to  convey  or  understand  any  but  the 
simplest  propositions.  I  determined 
to  put  the  thought  of  my  Time  Ma- 
chine, and  the  mystery  of  the  bronze 
doors  under  the  sphinx,  as  much  as 
possible  in  a  corner  of  my  memory 
until  my  growing  knowledge  would 
92 


THE  STRANGE  ANIMAL.  93 

lead  me  back  to  them  in  a  natural 
way.  Yet  a  certain  feeling  you  may 
understand  tethered  me  in  a  circle  of 
a  few  miles  round  the  point  of  my 
arrival. 

"  So  far  as  I  could  see,  all  the  world 
displayed  the  same  exuberant  rich- 
ness as  the  Thames  valley.  From 
every  hill  I  climbed  I  saw  the  same 
abundance  of  splendid  buildings, 
endlessly  varied  in  material  and  style, 
the  same  clustering  thickets  of  ever- 
greens, the  same  blossom-laden  trees 
and  tree  ferns.  Here  and  there 
water  shone  like  silver,  and  beyond, 
the  land  rose  into  blue  undulating 
hills  and  so  faded  into  the  serenity  of 
the  sky. 

"  A  peculiar  feature  that  presently 
attracted  my  attention  was  certain 
circular  wells  that  appeared  to  sink 
to  a  profound  depth.  One  layby  the 
path  up  the  hill  which  I  had  fol- 
lowed during  my  first  walk.  These 
wells  were  rimmed  with  bronze,  curi- 
ously wrought,  and  often  protected 


94  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

by  small  cupolas  from  the  rain.  Sit- 
ting by  the  side  of  these,  and  peering 
down,  I  failed  to  see  any  gleam 
of  water,  and  could  catch  no  reflec- 
tion from  a  lighted  match.  I 
heard  a  peculiar  dull  sound  ;  thud, 
thud,  thud,  like  the  beating  of  some 
big  engine,  and  I  discovered  from  the 
flaring  of  the  match  that  a  steady 
current  of  air  set  down  the  shaft. 

"  Moreover,  I  carelessly  threw  a 
scrap  of  paper  into  the  throat  of  the 
well,  and  instead  of  fluttering  slowly 
down,  it  was  at  once  sucked  swiftly 
out  of  sight.  After  a  time,  too,  I 
came  to  connect  with  these  wells  cer- 
tain tall  towers  that  stood  here  and 
there  upon  the  hill  slopes.  Above 
tliese  there  was  often  apparent  a  pe- 
culiar flicker  of  the  air,  much  as  one 
sees  it  on  a  hot  day  above  a  sun- 
scorched  beach. 

"Putting  these  things  together  there 
certainly  seemed  to  me  a  strong  sug- 
gestion of  an  extensive  system  of 
subterraneous  ventilation,  though  its 


THE  STRANGE  ANIMAL.  95 

true  import  was  difficult  to  im- 
agine. I  was  at  first  inclined  to  asso- 
ciate it  with  the  sanitary  apparatus 
of  these  people.  It  was  the  obvious 
suggestion  of  these  things,  but  it  was 
absolutely  wrong. 

"  And  here  I  must  admit  that  I 
learned  very  little  of  drains,  and 
bells,  and  modes  of  conveyance  and 
the  like  conveniences  during  my  time 
in  this  real  future.  In  some  of  the 
fictitious  visions  of  Utopias  and 
coming  times  I  have  read,  there  is  a 
vast  amount  of  detail  about  building 
construction  and  social  arrange- 
ments and  so  forth.  But  while  such 
details  are  easy  enough  to  obtain 
when  the  whole  world  lies  in  one's 
imagination,  they  are  altogether  in- 
accessible to  a  real  traveler  amid 
such  realities  as  surrounded  me. 
Conceive  what  tale  of  London  a 
negro  from  Central  Africa  would 
take  back  to  his  tribe.  What  would 
he  know  of  railway  companies,  of 
social  movements,  of  telephone  and 


9^  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

telegraph  wires,  of  the  parcels  deliv- 
ery company,  and  postal  orders  ? 
And  yet  we  at  least  would  be  willing 
enough  to  explain  these  things.  And 
even  of  what  he  knew,  how  much 
could  he  make  his  untraveled  friend 
believe  ?  Then  think  how  little  is 
the  gap  between  a  negro  and  a  man 
of  our  times,  and  how  wide  the  inter- 
val between  myself  and  the  Golden 
Age  people.  I  was  sensible  of  much 
that  was  unseen,  and  which  con- 
tributed to  my  comfort,  but  save  for 
a  general  impression  of  automatic 
organization,  I  fear  I  can  convey  very 
little  of  the  difference  to  your  minds. 
"  In  the  matter  of  sepulcher,  for 
instance,  I  could  see  no  traces  of 
crematoria  or  anything  suggestive  of 
tombs.  But  it  occurred  to  me  that 
possibly  cemeteries  or  crematoria 
existed  at  some  spot  beyond  the 
range  of  my  explorations.  This 
again  was  a  question  I  deliberately 
put  to  myself,  and  upon  which  my 
curiosity   was    at   first   entirely    de- 


THE  STRANGE  ANIMAL.  97 

feated.     Neither  were  there  any  old 
or   infirm   among   them. 

"  I  must  confess  that  my  satis- 
faction with  my  first  theories  at  an 
automatic  civilization  and  a  decadent 
humanity  did  not  endure.  Yet  I 
could  think  of  none  other.  Let  me 
put  my  difficulties.  The  several  big 
palaces  I  had  explored  were  mere 
living  places,  great  dining  halls  and 
sleeping  apartments.  I  could  find 
no  machinery,  no  appliances  of  any 
kind.  Yet  these  people  were  clothed 
in  pleasant  fabrics  that  must  at  times 
need  renewal,  their  sandals  though 
without  ornament  were  fairly  com- 
plex specimens  of  metal  work. 
Somehow  such  things  must  be  made. 
And  the  little  people  displayed  no 
vestige  of  the  creative  tendencies  of 
our  time.  There  were  no  shops,  no 
workshops,  no  indications  of  impor- 
tations from  any  other  part  of  the 
earth.  They  spent  all  their  time  irh  ^k  ^^ 
playing  gently,  in  bathing  in  the  ] 
river,  in  making  love  in  a  half  playt 


98  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

ful  fashioHj  in  eating  fruit,  and  sleep- 
ing. I  could  not  see  how  things 
were  kept   going. 

"Then  again  about  the  Time 
Machine.  Something,  I  knew  not 
what,  had  taken  it  into  the  hollow 
pedestal  of  the  sphinx.  Why  ?  For 
the  life  of  me  I  could  not  imagine. 

"ijThen  there  were  those  wells  with- 
out water,  those  flickering  pillars.  I 
felt  I  missed  a  clew  somewhere.  I 
felt — how  shall  I  say  it  ?  Suppose 
you  found  an  inscription  with  sen- 
tences here  and  there  in  excellent 
plain  English,  and  interpolated 
therewith  others  made  up  of  words, 
even  of  letters,  absolutely  unknown 
to  you.  That  was  how  the  world  of 
802,701  presented  itself  to  me  on  the 
third  day  of  my  stay. 

*'  On  that  day,  too,  I  made  a  friend 
— of  a  sort.  It  happened  that  as  I 
was  watching  some  of  the  little  people 
bathing  in  a  shallow  of  the  river, 
one  of  them  was  seized  with  cramp 
and  began  drifting  down  the  stream. 


THE  STRANGE  ANIMAL.  99 

The  main  current  of  the  stream  ran 
rather  swiftly  there,  but  not  too 
swiftly  for  even  a  moderate  swimmer. 
It  will  give  you  an  idea,  therefore,  of 
the  strange  want  of  ideas  of  these  peO" 
pie,  wTie"ri~TTelT"you  fhal  none  made/ 
the  slightest  attempt  to  rescue  the 
weakly,  crying  little  creature  who 
was  drowning  before  their  eyes. 

"  When  I  realized  this  I  hurriedly 
slipped  off  my  garments,  and  wading 
in  from  a  point  lower  down,  caught 
the  poor  little  soul  and  brought  her 
to  land. 

**  A  little  rubbing  of  the  limbs  soon 
brought  her  round,  and  I  had  the 
satisfaction  of  seeing  that  she  was  all 
right  before  I  left  her.  I  had  got  to 
such  a  low  estimate  of  these  little 
folks  that  I  did  not  expect  gratitude. 
In  that,  however,  I  was  wrong. 

"  The  incident  happened  in  the 
morning.  In  the  afternoon  I  met 
my  little  woman,  as  I  believe  it  was, 
when  I  was  returning  toward  my 
center  from  one  of  my  explorations, 


lOO  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

and  she  received  me  with  cries  of 
delight  and  presented  me  with  a  big 
garland  of  flowers — evidently  pre- 
pared  for   me. 

"  The  action  took  my  imagination. 
Very  possibly  I  had  been  feeling 
desolate.  At  any  rate  I  did  my  best 
to  display  my  appreciation  of  the 
gift. 

"  We  were  soon  seated  together  in 
a  little  stone  arbor,  engaged  in  a 
conversation  that  was  chiefly  smiles. 

"  The  little  creature's  friendliness 
affected  me  exactly  as  a  child's 
might.  We  passed  each  other 
flowers  and  she  kissed  my  hands.  I 
did  the  same  to  hers.  Then  I  tried 
conversation  and  found  out  her  name 
was  Weena,  which,  though  I  don't 
know  what  it  meant,  somehow 
seemed  appropriate  enough.  That 
was  the  beginning  of  a  queer  friend- 
ship that  lasted  altogether  a  week 
and  ended — as  I  will  tell  you. 

"  She  was  exactly  like  a  child.  She 
wanted  to  be  with  me  always.     She 


THE  STRANGE  ANIMAL.  lOI 

tried  to  follow  me  everywhere,  and  it 
went  to  my  heart  to  tire  her  out  upon 
my -next  exploration  and  leave  her 
behind  at  last  exhausted,  and  calling 
after  me  rather  plaintively.  But  the 
problems  of  the  world  had  to  be 
mastered.  I  had  not,  I  said  to  my- 
self, come  into  the  future  to  carry  on 
a  miniature  flirtation.  Yet  her  dis- 
tress when  I  left  her  was  very  great, 
her  expostulations  at  the  parting 
sometimes  frantic,  and  I  think  alto- 
gether I  had  as  much  trouble  as 
comfort  from  her  affection.  And 
yet  she  was,  somehow,  a  very  great 
comfort. 

"I  thought  it  was  mere  childish 
affection  that  made  her  cling  to  me. 
Until  it  was  too  late,  I  did  not 
clearly  know  what  I  had  inflicted 
upon  her  when  I  left  her.  Nor,  until 
it  was  too  late,  did  I  clearly  under- 
stand what  she  was  to  me.  For  the 
little  doll  of  a  creature,  by  merely 
seeming  fond  of  me  and  showing  in 
her  weak  futile  way  that  she  cared 


102  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

for  me,  presently  gave  ray  return  to 
the  neighborhood  of  the  white 
sphinx,  almost  the  feeling  of  coming 
home.  I  would  watch  for  her  little 
figure  of  white  and  gold  so  soon  as  I 
came  over  the  hill. 

"  It  was  from  her,  too,  that  I  learned 
that  fear  had  not  altogether  left  the 
world.  She  was  fearless  enough  in 
the  daylight,  and  she  had  the  oddest 
confidence  in  me — for  once  in  a  fool- 
ish moment  I  made  threatening 
grimaces  at  her,  and  she  simply 
laughed  at  them.  But  she  dreaded 
the  dark,  dreaded  shadows,  dreaded 
black  things.  Darkness  to  her  was 
the  one  fearful  thing.  It  was  a 
singularly  passionate  dread,  and  it 
set  me  thinking  and  observing.  I 
discovered  then,  among  other  things, 
that  these  little  people  gathered  into 
the  great  houses  after  dark,  and  slept 
a  number  together.  To  enter  upon 
them  without  a  light  was  to  put  them 
into  a  tumult  of  apprehension.  I 
never  found  one  out  of  doors  or  one 


THE   STRANGE  ANIMAL.  IO3 

sleeping  alone  within  doors  after 
dark. 

"  Yet  I  was  still  such  a  blockhead 
that  I  missed  the  lesson  of  that  fear, 
and  in  spite  of  Weena's  evident  dis- 
tress insisted  upon  sleeping  away 
from  these  slumbering  heaps  of 
humanity.  It  troubled  her  greatly, 
but  usually  her  odd  affection  for  me 
triumphed,  and  for  five  of  the  nights 
of  our  acquaintance,  including  the  last 
night  of  all,  she  slept  with  her  head 
pillowed  beside  mine.  But  my  story 
slips  away  from  me  as  I  speak  of  her. 

'^  It  must  have  been  on  the  night  be- 
fore I  rescued  Weena  that  I  woke  up 
about  dawn.  I  had  been  restless, 
dreaming  most  disagreeably  that  I 
was  drowned  and  that  sea  anemones 
were  feeling  over  my  face  with  their 
soft  palps.  I  awoke  with  a  start,  and 
with  an  odd  fancy  that  some  grayish 
animal  had  just  rushed  out  of  the 
chamber  in  which  I  slept. 

I  tried  to  get  to  sleep  again,  but  I 
felt  restless  and  uncomfortable.     It 


104  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

was  that  dim  gray  hour  when  things 
are  just  creeping  out  of  the  darkness, 
when  everything  is  colorless  and 
clear  cut  and  yet  unreal.  I  got  up 
and  went  down  into  the  great  hall 
and  out  upon  the  flagstones  in  front 
of  the  palace.  I  thought  I  would 
make  a  virtue  of  necessity  and  see 
the  sunrise. 

"The  moon  was  setting,  and  the 
dying  moonlight  and  first  pallor  of 
dawn  mingled  together  in  a  ghastly 
half-light.  The  bushes  were  inky 
black,  the  ground  a  somber  gray,  the 
sky  colorless  and  cheerless.  And  up 
the  hill  slope  I  thought  I  saw  ghosts. 
Three  several  times  as  I  scanned  the 
slope  I  saw  white  figures.  Twice  I 
fancied  I  saw  a  solitary  white  ape- 
like creature  running  rather  quickly 
up  the  hill,  and  once  near  the  ruins  I 
saw  a  group  of  two  carrying  some 
dark  body.  They  moved  hastily.  I 
did  not  see  what  became  of  them. 
It  seemed  that  they  vanished  among 
the  bushes. 


THE  STRANGE  ANIMAL.  I05 

"  The  dawn  was  still  indistinct,  you 
must  understand.  I  was  feeling  that 
chill,  uncertain,  early  morning  feel- 
ing you  may  have  experienced.  I 
doubted  my  eyes.  As  the  eastern 
sky  grew  brighter,  and  the  light  of 
the  day  increased,  and  vivid  coloring 
came  back  to  the  world  once  more,  I 
scanned  the  view  keenly,  but  I  saw 
no  confirmation  of  my  white  figures. 
They  were  mere  creatures  of  the  half 
light. 

"  *  They  must  have  been  ghosts," 
said  I ;  "I  wonder  whence  they 
dated.' 

"  For  a  queer  notion  of  Grant 
Allen's  came  into  my  head  and 
amused  me.  If  each  generation  dies 
and  leaves  ghosts,  he  argues,  the 
world  at  last  will  get  overcrowded 
with  them.  On  that  theory  they 
would  have  become  very  thick  in 
eight  hundred  thousand  years  from 
now,  and  it  was  no  great  wonder  to 
see  four  all  at  once.  But  the  jest 
was  unsatisfactory,  and  I  was  think- 


I06  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

ing  of  these  figures  all  the  morning 
until  the  rescue  of  Weena  drove  the 
subject  out  of  my  head.  I  associated 
them  in  some  indefinite  way  with  the 
white  animal  I  had  startled  in  my 
first^  passionate  search  for  the  Time 
Machine.  But  Weena  was  a  pleasant 
substitute  for  such  a  topic. 

**  These  ghostly  shapes  were  soon 
destined  to  take  possession  of  my 
mind  in  a  far  more  vivid  fashion.  I 
think  I  have  said  how  much  hotter 
than  our  own  was  the  weather  of  this 
future  age.  I  cannot  account  for  it. 
It  may  be  the  sun  was  hotter,  or  else 
the  earth  was  nearer  the  sun.  It  is 
usual  to  assume  that  the  sun  will  go 
on  cooling  steadily  in  the  future,  but 
people  unfamiliar  with  such  specula- 
tions as  those  of  the  younger  Darwin, 
forget  that  the  planets  must  ulti- 
mately, one  by  one,  fall  back  into  the 
parent  body.  As  these  catastrophies 
occur  the  sun  will  blaze  out  again 
with  renewed  energy.  It  may  be 
that  some  inner  planet  had  suffered 


THE  STRANGE  ANIMAL.  I07 

this  fate.  Whatever  the  reason,  the 
fact  remains  that  the  sun  was  very 
much  hotter  than  it  is  now. 

"  It  was  one  very  hot  morning,  my 
fourth  morning,  I  think,  as  I  was 
seeking  a  refuge  from  the  heat  and 
glare  in  a  colossal  ruin  near  the  great 
house  where  I  sheltered,  that  this 
remarkable  incident  occurred.  Clam- 
bering among  these  heaps  of  masonry, 
I  found  a  long  narrow  gallery,  the  end 
and  side  windows  of  which  were 
blocked  by  fallen  masses  of  masonry 
and  which  by  contrast  with  the  bril- 
liance outside  seemed  at  first  impene- 
trably dark  to  me. 

"  I  entered  it  groping,  for  the  change 
from  light  to  blackness  made  spots  of 
color  swim  before  me.  Suddenly  I 
halted  spell-bound.  A  pair  of  eyes, 
luminous  by  reflection  against  the 
daylight  without,  was  watching  me 
out  of  the  obscurity  ! 

"  The  old  instinctive  dread  of  wild 
animals  came  upon  me.  I  clenched 
my  hands  and  steadfastly  looked  into 


Io8  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

the  glaring  eyeballs.  I  feared  to 
turn.  Then  the  thought  of  the  ab- 
solute security  in  which  humanity 
appeared  to  be  living  came  to  my 
mind.  Then  I  remembered  that 
strange   dread   of   the   dark. 

**  Overcoming  my  fear  to  some 
extent,  I  advanced  a  step,  and 
spoke.  I  will  admit  that  my  voice 
was  hoarse  and  ill  controlled.  I  put 
out  my  hand,  and  touched  some- 
thing  soft. 

"  At  once  the  eyes  darted  sideways, 
and  something  white  ran  past  me.  I 
turned,  with  my  heart  in  my  mouth, 
and  saw  a  queer  little  ape-like  figure, 
with  the  head  held  down  in  a  pecu- 
liar manner,  running  across  the  sun- 
lit space  behind  me.  It  blundered 
against  a  block  of  granite,  staggered 
aside,  and  in  a  moment  was  hidden 
in  a  black  shadow  beneath  another 
pile  of  ruined  masonry. 

"  My  impression  of  it  was  of  course 
very  imperfect.  It  was  of  a  dull 
white  color,  and  had  strange,  large. 


THE  STRANGE  ANIMAL.  lO^ 

grayish-red  eyes.  There  was  some 
flaxen  hair  on  its  head  and  down  its 
back.  But,  as  I  say,  it  went  too 
fast  for  me  to  see  distinctly.  I  can- 
not even  say  whether  it  ran  on  all 
fours,  or  only  with  its  fore  arms  held 
very  low. 

"  After  a  momentary  hesitation  I 
followed  the  creature  into  the  second 
heap  of  ruins.  I  could  not  find  it 
there  at  first,  but  after  a  time,  in  the 
profound  obscurity  I  came  upon  one 
of  those  round,  well-like  openings, 
of  which  I  have  told  you,  half  closed 
by  a  fallen  pillar.  A  sudden  thought 
came  to  me.  Could  the  thing  have 
vanished  down  the  shaft  ?  I  lit  a 
match,  and,  looking  down,  saw  a 
small  white  moving  figure,  with  large 
bright  eyes,  that  regarded  me  stead- 
fastly as  it  retreated. 

"  The  thing  made  me  shudder.  It 
was  so  like  a  human  spider.  It  was 
clambering  down  the  wall  of  the 
shaft,  and  now  I  noticed  for  the  first 
time  a  number  of  metal  projections 


110  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

for  foot  and  hand,  forming  a  kind  of 
ladder  down. 

**  Suddenly  the  light  burned  my 
fingers  and  fell  out  of  my  hand, 
going  out  as  it  dropped  ;  and  when 
I  had  lit  another,  the  little  monster 
had  disappeared. 

"  I  do  not  know  how  long  I  sat 
peering  down  the  portentous  well. 
Very  slowly  could  I  persuade  myself 
that  the  thing  I  had  seen  was  a  man. 
But  gradually  the  real  truth  dawned 
upon  me  ;  that  man  had  not  remained 
one  species,  but  had  differentiated 
into  two  distinct  animals  ;  that  my 
graceful  children  of  the  upperworld 
were  not  the  only  descendants  of  the 
men  of  my  generation,  but  that  this 
bleached,  nocturnal  thing  that  had 
flashed  before  me,  was  also  heir  to 
our  age. 

"  I  thought  of  the  flickering  pillars, 
and  of  my  theory  of  an  underground 
ventilation.  I  began  to  suspect  their 
true  import. 

"  But  what  was  this  creature  doing 


THE  STRANGE  ANIMAL.  m 

in  my  scheme  of  a  perfectly  balanced 
organization  ?  How  was  it  related 
to  the  indolent  serenity  of  the  beau- 
tiful overworld  people  ?  And  what 
was  hidden  down  below  there  ?  I 
sat  upon  the  edge  of  the  well,  telling 
myself  I  had  nothing  to  fear  in  de- 
scending, and  that  there  I  must  go 
for  the  solution  of  my  difficulties, 
and  withal  I  was  absolutely  afraid  to 
go  down. 

"As  I  hesitated,  two  of  the  beautiful 
upperworld  people  came  running  in 
their  amorous  sport,  across  the  day- 
light into  the  shadow.  One  pursued 
the  other,  flinging  flowers  at  her  as 
he  ran.  They  seemed  disappointed 
when  they  found  me  with  my  arm 
against  the  overturned  pillar,  peering 
down  the  well.  Apparently,  it  was 
considered  bad  form  to  notice  these 
apertures,  for  when  I  pointed  to  it, 
and  tried  to  frame  a  question  about 
it  in  their  tongue,  they  seemed  dis- 
tressed, and  turned  away.  They 
were,    however,    interested    by    my 


112  THE   TIME  MACHINE, 

matches,    and    I    struck    several   to 
amuse  them. 

''  However,  all  my  attempts  to  woo 
them  toward  the  subject  I  wanted 
failed  ;  and  presently  I  left  them. 
I  resolved  to  go  back  to  Weena,  and 
see  what  I  could  get  from  her. 

*'  But  my  mind  was  already  in  revo- 
lution, my  guesses    and  impressions 
slipping  and  sliding  to  a  new  adjust- 
ment.    I  had  now  the  clew  to  these 
wells,    to  the    ventilating  towers,  to 
the   problem    of    the    ghosts,  and  a 
hint,  indeed,  of  the  meaning  of  the 
bronze  gates  and  the  fate  of  the  Time 
Machine.       Vaguely    indeed,    there 
came  a  suggestion    toward  the  eco- 
nomic problem  that  had  puzzled  me. 
"  Here  was  the  new  view  :     Evi- 
:  dently  this   second    species   of  man 
was  subterranean.     There  were  three 
I  circumstances      m     particular     that 
I  made  me  think    its    rare  emergence 
upon  the  surface  was    the   outcome 
of  long  subterraneous  habit.      In  the 
first  place,  the  bleached  appearance, 


THE  STRANGE  ANIMAL.  113 

common  in  most  animals  that  live 
largely  in  the  dark — the  white  fish 
of  the  Kentucky  caves,  for  instance. 
Then  the  large  eyes  and  their  ca- 
pacity for  reflecting  the  light — a 
common  feature  of  nocturnal  eyes, 
witness  the  owl  and  the  cat.  And 
finally  the  evident  confusion  in  the 
sunlight,  the  hasty  flight  toward  dark 
shadow,  and  the  carriage  of  the  head 
while  in  the  light,  re-enforced  the 
idea  of  an  extremely  sensitive  retina. 

"  Beneath  my  feet,  then,  the  earth 
must  be  tunneled  out  to  an  enor- 
mous extent,  and  in  these  caverns 
the  new  race  lived.  The  presence  of 
ventilating  shafts  and  wells  all  along 
the  hill  slopes — everywhere,  in  fact, 
except  along  the  river  valley — showed 
how  universally  the  ramifications  of 
the  underworld  extended. 

"And  it  was  natural  to  assume  that 
it  was  in  the  underworld  that  the 
necessary  work  of  the  overv/orld  was 
performed.  This  was  so  plausible 
that    I    accepted    it  unhesitatingly. 


114  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

From  that  I  went  on  to  assume  how 
the  splitting  of  the  human  species 
came  about.  I  dare  say  you  will  an- 
ticipate what  shape  my  theory  took, 
though  I  soon  felt  it  was  still  short 
of   the   truth   of   the   case. 

*'  But  at  first,  starting  from  the 
problems  of  our  own  age,  it  seemed 
as  clear  as  daylight  to  me  that  the 
gradual  widening  of  the  present 
merely  temporary  and  social  differ- 
ence of  the  capitalist  from  the 
laborer  was  the  key  to  the  explana- 
tion. No  doubt  it  will  seem  gro- 
tesque enough  to  you  and  wildly  in- 
credible, and  yet  even  now  there  are 
circumstances  that  point  in  the  way 
things  have  gone.  There  is  a  ten- 
dency plainly  enough  to  utilize 
underground  space  for  the  less  orna- 
mental purposes  of  civilization  ; 
there  is  the  Metropolitan  Railway  in 
London,  for  instance,  and  all  these 
new  electric  railways  ;  there  are  sub- 
ways, and  underground  workrooms, 
restaurants,  and  so  forth.    Evidently, 


THE  STRANG]^ ANIMAL.  11$ 

L  .thought,  this'  tendency  had  in- 
creased until  industry  had  gradually 
lost  sight  of  the  day,  going  into 
larger  and  larger  underground  fac- 
tories, in  which  the  workers  would 
spend  an  increasing  amount  of  their 
time.  Even  now,  an  East  End 
worker  lives  in  such  artificial  condi- 
tions as  practically  to  be  cut  off  from 
the  natural  surface  of  the  earth  and 
the  clear  sky  altogether. 

"  Then  again,  the  exclusive  ten- 
dency of  richer  people,  due,  no\ 
doubt,  to  the  increasing  refinement  * 
of  their  education  and  the  widening 
gulf  between  them  and  the  rude  vio- 
lence of  the  poor,  is  already  leading 
to  the  closing  of  considerable  por- 
tions of  the  surface  of  the  country 
against  these  latter.  About  London, 
for  instance,  perhaps  half  the  prettier 
country  is  shut  up  from  such  intru- 
sion. And  the  same  widening  gulf, 
due  to  the  length  and  expense  of  the 
higher  educational  process  and  the 
increased  facilities  for,  and  tempta- 


Il6  THE  TIME  MACHINE. 

tion  toward,  forming  refined  habits 
among  the  rich,  will  make  that  fre- 
quent exchange  between  class  and 
iclass,  that  promotion  and  inter- 
!  marriage  which  at  present  retards  the 
splitting  of  our  species  along  the 
lines  of  social  stratification,  less  and 
less  frequent. 

'*  So,  in  the  end,  you  would  have 
above  ground  the  Haves,  pursuing 
health,  comfort,  and  beauty,  and 
below  ground  the  Have-nots ;  the 
workers,  getting  continually  adapted 
to  their  labor.  No  doubt,  once  they 
were  below  ground,  considerable 
rents  would  be  charged  for  the  ven- 
tilation of  their  caverns.  Workers 
Y  who  struck  work  would  starve  or  be 
suffocated  for  arrears  of  ventilator 
rent  ;  workers  who  were  so  consti- 
tuted as  to  be  miserable  and  rebel- 
lious would  die.  In  the  end,  if  the 
balance  was  held  permanent,  the 
survivors  would  become  as  well 
adapted  to  the  conditions  of  their 
subterranean   life   as   the   overworld 


THE  STRANGE  ANIMAL.  H? 

people  were  to  theirs,  and  as  happy 
in  their  way.  It  seemed  to  me  that 
the  refined  beauty  of  the  overworld, 
and  the  etiolated  pallor  of  the  lower, 
followed  naturally  enough. 

"  The  great  triumph  of  humanity  I 
had  dreamed  of  now  took  a  different 
shape  in  my  mind.     It  had  been  no 
triumph   of  universal  education  and 
general  co-operation,  such  as  I  had 
imagined  at  the  first.     Instead,  I  saw 
a  real  aristocracy,  armed  with  a  per- 
fected science  and  working  out  to  a 
logical  conclusion  the  industrial  sys-  ;\ 
tem  of  to-day.     The  triumph  of  the\  \  ^ 
overworld   humanity   had    not   been        ;  \ 
simply  a  triumph  over  nature,  but  a        .    / 
triumph  over  nature  and  their  fellow-   , 
men. 

"  I  must  warn  you  this  was  my 
theory  at  the  time.  I  had  no  con- 
venient Cicerone  on  the  pattern  of 
the  Utopian  books.  My  explanation  ,  ^ 
may  be  absolutely  wrong.  I  still 
think  it  the  most  plausible  one.  Bu 
even  on  this  supposition  the  balanc 


Il8  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

civilization  that  was  at  last  attained 
must  have  long  since  passed  its 
zenith,  and  was  now  far  gone  in  de- 
cay. The  too  perfect  security  of 
the  overworld  had  led  these  to  a 
slow  movement  of  degeneration  at 
last — to  a  general  dwindling  of  size, 
strength,  and  intelligence.  That  I 
already  saw  clearly  enough,  but  what 
had  happened  to  the  lower  world  I 
did  not  yet  suspect.  Yet  from  what 
I  had  seen  of  the  Morlocks, — that,  by 
the  bye,  was  the  name  by  which  these 
creatures  were  called, — I  could  im- 
agine the  modification  of  the  human 
type  was  far  more  profound  in  the 
underworld  than  among  the  Eloij  the 
beautiful  races  that  I  already  knew. 
"  Then  came  some  troublesome 
doubts.  Why  had  the  Morlocks 
taken  my  Time .  Machine  ?  For  I 
"  felt  sure  these  underpeople  had  taken 
it.  Why,  too,  if  the  Eloi  'were 
masters,  could  they  not  restore  the 
^<-hing  to  me  ?  And  why  were  the 
subi.i  so  afraid  of  the  dark  ? 


THE  STRANGE  ANIMAL.  Hg 

"I  determined,  as  I  have  said,  to 
question  Weena  about  this  under- 
world, but  here  again  I  was  disap- 
pointed. At  first  she  would  not 
understand  my  questions,  and  then 
she  refused  to  answer.  She  shivered 
as  though  the  topic  was  unendurable. 
And  when  I  pressed  her,  perhaps  a 
little  harshly,  she  burst  into  tears. 

"  They  were  the  only  tears  I  ever 
saw  in  that  future  age,  except  my 
own.  When  I  saw  them  I  ceased 
abruptly  to  trouble  about  the  Mor- 
locks,  and  was  only  concerned_in 
driving  these  signs  of  her  human  in- 
heritance out  of  her  eyes  again.  And 
presently  she  was  smiling  and  clap- 
ping her  hands  while  I  solemnly  burnt 
a  match. 


j  t  ^-'t^V^^ 


/ 


H-U 


.'J. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Zbc  /I!borlocft0» 

T  may  seem  odd  to  you,  but 
it  was  two  days  before  I 
could  follow  up  the  clew  of 
these  Morlocks  in  what  was  mani- 
festly the  proper  way,  and  descend 
into  the  well.  I  felt  a  peculiar  shrink- 
ing from  their  pallid  bodies.  They 
were  just  the  half-bleached  color  of 
the  worms  and  things  one  sees  pre- 
served in  spirit  in  a  zoological 
museum.  And  they  were  cold  to  the 
touch.  Probably  my  shrinking  was 
largely  due  to  the  sympathetic  influ- 
ence of  the  Eloi,  whose  disgust  of  the 
Morlocks  I  now  began  to  appreciate. 
"  The  next  night  I  did  not  sleep  very 
well.  Possibly  my  health  was  a  little 
disordered.  I  was  oppressed  with 
doubt  and  perplexity.     Once  or  twice 


THE  MORLOCKS.  121 

I  had  a  feeling  of  intense  fear  for 
which  I  could  perceive  no  definite 
reason.  I  remember  creeping  noise- 
lessly into  the  great  hall  where  the 
little  people  were  sleeping  in  the 
moonlight — that  night  it  was  that 
Weena  was  among  them — and  feel- 
ing reassured  by  their  presence.  It 
occurred  to  me  even  then  that  when 
in  the  course  of  a  few  days  the  moon 
passed  through  its  last  quarter  and 
the  nights  became  dark,  the  appear- 
ance of  these  unpleasant  creatures 
from  below,  these  whitened  Lemurs, 
these  new  vermin  that  had  replaced 
the  old,  might  be  more  abundant. 

"On  both  these  days  I  had  the  rest- 
less feeling  of  one  who  shirks  an  in- 
evitable duty.  I  felt  assured  that  the 
Time  Machine  was  only  to  be  re- 
covered by  boldly  penetrating  these 
subterranean  mysteries.  Yet  I  could 
not  face  it.  If  I  had  only  had  a 
companion  it  would  have  been  dif- 
ferent. But  I  was  so  horribly  alone, 
and    even    to    clamber    down    into 


122  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

the  darkness  of  the  well  appalled 
me. 

"  I  don't  know  if  you  will  under- 
stand my  feeling,  but  I  never  felt 
quite  safe  at  my  back. 

"  It  was  this  restless  feeling,  per- 
haps, that  drove  me  further  than  I  had 
hitherto  gone  in  my  exploring  expedi- 
tions. Going  to  the  southwestward 
toward  the  rising  country  that  is  now 
called  Combe  Wood,  I  observed  far 
off,  in  the  direction  of  nineteenth 
century  Banstead,  a  vast  green  pile, 
of  a  different  character  from  any  I 
had  hitherto  seen.  It  was  larger 
than  even  the  largest  of  the  palaces 
or  ruins  I  knew,  and  the  fagade  ap- 
peared to  me  Oriental  in  its  character. 
The  face  of  it  had  the  luster  as  well 
as  the  pale  green  tint,  a  kind  of  bluish 
green,  of  a  certain  type  of  Chinese 
porcelain.  The  difference  in  appear- 
ance in  the  building  suggested  a  dif- 
ference in  its  use.  I  was  minded  to 
push  on  and  explore  it.  But  the  day 
was  growing  late  and   I   had  come 


THE  MORLOCKS.  123 

upon  the  sight  of  the  place  after  a 
long  and  tiring  circuit.  I  resolved 
to  postpone  this  examination  for  the 
following  day,  and  returned  to  the 
welcome  and  caresses  of  little  Weena. 

"But  the  next  morning  I  was  in  a 
mood  of  remorse  for  my  hesitation  in 
descending  the  well  and  facing  the 
Morlocks  in  their  caverns.  I  per- 
ceived my  curiosity  regarding  this 
great  pile  of  Green  Porcelain  was  a 
mere  self-deception  to  shirk  the  ex- 
perience I  dreaded  by  another  day. 
I  resolved  I  would  make  the  descent 
without  further  waste  of  time,  and 
started  out  in  the  early  morning  to- 
ward a  well  near  the  ruins  of  granite 
and  aluminum. 

"  Little  Weena  ran  by  my  side.  She 
followed  me  to  the  well  dancing,  but 
when  she  saw  me  lean  over  the  mouth 
and  look  downward,  she  seemed 
strangely  disconcerted. 

" '  Good-by,  little  Weena,*  said  I, 
kissing  her,  and  then  putting  her 
down  I  began  to  feel  over  the  parapet 


124  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

for  the  climbing  hooks — rather  has- 
tily, for  I  feared  my  courage  might 
leak  away. 

'*  At  first  Weena  watched  me  in 
amazement,  and  then  she  gave  a  most 
piteous  cry,  and  running  to  me  be- 
gan to  pull  at  me  with  her  little 
hands.  1  think  her  opposition  nerved 
me  rather  to  proceed.  I  shook  her 
off,  perhaps  a  little  roughly,  and  in 
another  moment  I  was  in  the  throat 
of  the  well. 

"  I  saw  her  agonized  face  over  the 
parapet,  and  smiled  to  reassure  her. 
Then  I  had  to  look  down  at  the  un- 
stable hooks  by  which  I  hung. 

"  I  had  to  clamber  down  a  shaft  of 
perhaps  two  hundred  yards.  The 
descent  was  effected  by  means  of  me- 
tallic bars  projecting  from  the  sides 
of  the  well,  and  since  they  were 
adapted  to  the  needs  of  a  creature  much 
smaller  and  lighter  than  myself,  I 
was  speedily  cramped  and  fatigued 
by  the  descent.  And  not  simply 
fatigued.     My  weight  suddenly  bent 


THE  MORLOCKS,  125 

one  of  the  hooks  and  almost  swung 
me  off  it  down  into  the  blackness 
beneath. 

**  For  a  moment  I  hung  by  one  hand, 
and  after  that  experience  I  did  not 
dare  to  rest  again,  and  though  my 
arms  and  back  were  presently  acutely 
painful,  I  continued  to  clamber  with 
as  quick  a  motion  as  possible  down 
the  sheer  descent.  Glancing  upward 
I  saw  the  aperture,  a  mere  small  blue 
disk  above  me,  in  which  a  star  was 
visible,  and  little  Weena's  head  ap- 
peared as  a  round  black  projection. 
The  thudding  sound  of  some  machine 
below  me  grew  louder  and  more 
oppressive.  Everything  save  that 
minute  circle  above  was  profoundly 
dark.  When  I  looked  up  again 
Weena  had  disappeared. 

"  I  was  in  an  agony  of  discomfort. 
I  had  some  thought  of  trying  to  go 
up  the  shaft  again,  and  leave  the 
underworld  alone.  But  while  I 
turned  this  over  in  my  mind  I  con- 
tinued to  descend. 


126  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

"  It  was  with  intense  relief  that  I 
saw  dimly  coming  up  a  foot  to  the 
right  of  me,  a  slender  loophole  in  the 
wall  of  the  shaft,  and  swinging  myself 
in,  found  it  was  the  aperture  of  a 
narrow  horizontal  tunnel  in  which  I 
could  lie  down  and  rest. 

"  It  was  not  too  soon.  My  arms 
ached,  my  back  was  cramped,  and  I 
was  trembling  with  the  prolonged 
fear  of  falHng.  Besides  this,  the  un- 
broken darkness  had  had  a  distress- 
ing effect  upon  my  eyes.  The  air  was 
full  of  the  throbbing  and  hum  of  the 
machinery  that  pumped  the  air  down 
the  shaft. 

"  I  do  not  know  how  long  I  lay  in 
that  tunnel.  I  was  roused  by  a  soft 
hand  touching  my  face.  Starting  up 
in  the  darkness,  I  snatched  at  my 
matches  and  hastily  striking  one  saw 
three  grotesque,  white  creatures,  simi- 
lar to  the  one  I  had  seen  above 
ground  in  the  ruin,  hastily  retreating 
before  the  light.     Living  as  they  did 


THE  MORLOCKS.  127 

in  what  appeared  to  me  impenetrable 
darkness,  their  eyes  were  abnormally 
large  and  sensitive,  just  as  are  the  eyes 
of  the  abyssmal  fishes  or  of  any  purely 
nocturnal  creatures,  and  they  re- 
flected the  light  in  the  same  way.  I 
have  no  doubt  they  could  see  me  in 
that  rayless  obscurity,  and  they  did 
not  seem  to  have  any  fear  of  me 
apart  from  the  light.  But  so  soon  as 
I  struck  a  match  in  order  to  see  them, 
they  fled  incontinently,  vanishing  up 
dark  gutters  and  tunnels  from  which 
their  eyes  glared  at  me  in  the  strangest 
fashion. 

"  I  tried  to  call  to  them,  but  what 
language  they  had  was  apparently 
a  different  one  from  that  of  the  over- 
world  people.  So  that  I  was  needs 
left  to  my  own  unaided  exploration. 
The  thought  of  flight  rather  than  ex- 
ploration was  even  at  that  time  in 
my  mind. 

You  are  in  for  it  now,'  said  I  to 
myself,  and  went  on. 

"  Feeling  my  way  along  this  tunnel 


128  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

of  mine,  the  confused  noise  of 
machinery  grew  louder,  and  presently 
the  walls  fell  away  from  me  and  I 
came  to  a  large  open  space,  and  strik- 
ing another  match  saw  I  had  en- 
tered a  vast  arched  cavern  extending 
into  darkness,  at  last,  beyond  the 
range  of  my  light. 

"  The  view  I  had  of  this  cavern  was 
as  much  as  one  could  see  in  the  burn- 
ing of  a  match.  Necessarily  my 
memory  of  it  is  very  vague.  Great 
shapes  like  big  machines  rose  out  of 
the  dim  and  threw  grotesque  black 
shadows,  in  which  the  spectral  Mor- 
locks  sheltered  from  the  glare.  The 
place,  by  the  bye,  was  very  stuffy  and 
oppressive,  and  the  faint  halitus  of 
freshly  shed  blood  was  in  the  air. 
Some  way  down  the  central  vista 
was  a  little  table  of  white  metal  upon 
which  a  meal  seemed  to  be  spread. 
The  Morlocks  at  any  rate  were  car- 
nivorous. Even  at  the  time  I  re- 
member thinking  what  large  animal 
could  have  survived  to  furnish   the 


THE  MORLOCKS.  1 29 

red  joint  I  saw.  It  was  all  very  in- 
distinct, the  heavy  smell,  the  big  un- 
meaning shapes,  the  white  figures 
lurking  in  the  shadows,  and  only 
waiting  for  the  darkness  to  come  at 
me  again.  Then  the  match  burned 
down  and  stung  my  fingers  and  fell, 
a  wriggling  red  spot  in  the  black. 

"  I  have  thought  since  how  particu- 
larly ill  equipped  I  was.  When  I 
had  started  with  the  Time  Machine  I 
had  started  with  the  absurd  assump- 
tion that  the  men  of  the  future  would 
certainly  be  infinitely  in  front  of  us 
in  all  their  appliances.  I  had  come 
v/ithout  arms,  without  medicine,  with- 
out anything  to  smoke, — at  times  I 
missed  tobacco  frightfully,— even 
without  enough  matches.  If  I  had 
only  thought  of  a  kodak  !  I  could 
have  flashed  that  glimpse  of  the  un- 
derworld \n  a  second  and  examined 
it  at  leisure.  But  as  it  was,  I  stood 
there  with  only  the  weapons  and 
powers  that  Nature  had  endowed  me 
with— hands,  feet,  and  teeth— except 


130  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

four  safety  matches  that  still  re- 
mained  to  me. 

"  I  was  afraid  to  push  my  way  in 
among  all  this  machinery  in  the  dark, 
and  it  was  only  with  my  last  glimpse 
of  light  I  discovered  that  my  store  of 
matches  had  run  low.  It  had  never 
occurred  to  me  until  that  moment 
that  there  was  any  need  to  economize 
them,  and  I  had  wasted  almost  half 
of  the  box  in  astonishing  the  above- 
ground  people,  to  whom  fire  was  a 
novelty.     As  I  say,  I  had  four  left. 

"  Then  while  I  stood  in  the  dark  a 
hand  touched  mine  ;  then  some  lank 
fingers  came  feeling  over  my  face. 
I  was  sensible  of  a  dull,  unpleasant 
odor.  I  fancy  I  detected  the 
breathing  of  a  number  of  those  little 
beings  about  me.  I  felt  the  box  of 
matches  in  my  hand  being  gently  dis- 
engaged, and  other  hands  behind  me 
plucking  at  my  clothing. 

"  The  sense  of  these  unseen  crea- 
tures examining  me  was  indescribably 
unpleasant.    The  sudden   realization 


THE  MORLOCKS.  13 1 

of  my  ignorance  of  their  ways  of  think- 
ing and  possible  actions  came  home 
to  me  very  vividly  in  the  darkness. 
I  shouted  at  them  as  loudly  as  I 
could.  They  started  away  from  me, 
and  then  I  could  feel  them  approach- 
ing me  again.  They  clutched  at  me 
more  boldly,  whispering  odd  sounds 
to  each  other.  I  shivered  violently 
and  shouted  again,  rather  discord- 
antly. This  time  they  were  not  so 
seriously  alarmed  and  made  a  queer 
laughing  noise  as  they  came  toward 
me  again. 

**  I  will  confess  I  was  horribly 
frightened.  I  determined  to  strike 
another  match  and  escape  under  its 
glare.  Eking  it  out  with  a  scrap  of 
paper  from  my  pocket,  I  made  good 
my  retreat  to  the  narrow  tunnel. 
But  hardly  had  I  entered  this  when 
my  light  was  blown  out,  and  I  could 
hear  them  in  the  blackness  rustling 
like  wind  among  leaves  and  pattering 
like  the  rain,  as  they  hurried  after  me. 

"  In  a   moment  I  was  clutched  by 


132  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

several  hands  again,  and  there  was 
no  mistake  now  that  they  were  trying 
to  draw  me  back.  I  struck  another 
light  and  waved  it  in  their  dazzled 
faces.  You  can  scarcely  imagine 
how  nauseatingly  inhuman  those  pale, 
chinless  faces  and  great  lidless, 
pinkish-gray  eyes  seemed,  as  they 
stared  stupidly,  evidently  blinded  by 
the  light. 

"So  I  gained  time  and  retreated 
again,  and  when  my  second  match 
had  ended  struck  my  third.  That 
had  almost  burned  through  as  I 
reached  the  opening  of  the  tunnel 
upon  the  well.  I  lay  down  on  the 
edge,  for  the  throbbing  whirl  of  the 
air-pumping  machine  below  made  me 
giddy,  and  felt  sideways  for  the  pro- 
jecting hooks.  As  I  did  so  my  feet 
were  grasped  from  behind  and  I  was 
violently  tugged  backward.  I  lit  my 
last  match — and  it  incontinently 
went  out.  But  I  had  my  hand  on 
the  climbing  bars  now,  and  kicking 
violently  disengaged  myself  from  the 


THE  MORLOCKS.  133 

clutches  of  the  Morlocks,  and  was 
speedily  clambering  up  the  shaft 
again. 

'*  They  remained  peering  and  blink- 
ing up  the  shaft,  except  one  little 
wretch  who  followed  me  for  some 
way,  and  indeed  well-nigh  captured 
my  boot  as  a  trophy. 

*'  That  upward  climb  seemed  unend- 
ing. While  I  still  had  the  last  twenty 
or  thirty  feet  of  it  above  me,  a  deadly 
nausea  came  upon  me.  I  had  the 
greatest  difficulty  in  keeping  my  hold. 
The  last  few  yards  was  a  frightful 
struggle  against  this  faintness. 
Several  times  my  head  swam  and  I 
felt  all  the  sensations  of  falling. 

"  At  last  I  got  over  the  well  mouth 
somehow  and  staggered  out  of  the 
ruin  into  the  blinding  sunlight.  I  fell 
upon  my  face.  Even  the  soil  seemed 
sweet  and  clean. 

"Then  I  remember  Weena  kissing 
my  hands  and  ears,  and  the  voices  of 
others  of  the  Eloi.  Then  probably  I 
was  insensible  for  a  time. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

Wibcn  tbe  mm  Came. 

OW,  indeed,  I  seemed  to  be 
in  a  worse  case  than  before. 
Hitherto,  except  during  my 
night's  anguish  at  the  loss  of  the 
Time  Machine,  I  had  felt  a  sustain- 
ing hope  of  ultimate  escape,  but  my 
hope  was  staggered  by  these  new 
discoveries.  Hitherto,  I  had  merely 
thought  myself  impeded  by  the  child- 
ish simplicity  of  the  little  people  and 
by  some  unknown  forces  which  I  had 
only  to  understand  in  order  to  over- 
come. But  there  was  an  altogether 
new  element  in  the  sickening  quality 
of  the  Morlocks,  something  inhuman 
and  malign.  Instinctively  I  loathed 
them.  Before,  I  had  felt  as  a  man 
might  feel  who  had  fallen  into  a  pit  ; 
my  concern  was  with  the  pit  and 
134 


WHEN  THE  NIGHT  CAME.  1 35 

how  to  get  out  again.  But  now  I 
felt  like  a  beast  in  a  trap,  whose 
enemy   would   presently   comeo 

*'  The  enemy  I  dreaded  may  sur- 
prise you.    It  was  the  darkness  of  the 
new  moon.    Weena  had  put  this  into 
my   head   by  some,  at  first,    incom- 
prehensible remarks  about  the  Dark 
Nights.     It  was  not  now  such  a  very 
difficult  problem  to  guess  what  the 
coming   Dark    Nights   might    mean. 
The  moon  was  on  the  wane  ;  each 
night  there  was  a  longer  interval  of 
darkness.     And  I  now    understood, 
to   some   slight  degree,  at  least,  the 
reason  of  the  fear  of  the  little  upper- 
world  people  for  the  dark.     I  won- 
dered vaguely  what   foul   villany   it 
might    be    that    the   Morlocks    did 
under  the  darkness  of  the  new  moon. 
"  Whatever  the  origin  of  the  exist- 
ing conditions,  I  felt  pretty  sure  now 
that  my  second  hypothesis  was   all 
wrong.  The  upperworld  people  might 
once  have  been  the  favored  aristoc- 
racy of  the  world,  and  the  Morlocks 


/ 

V 


136  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

their  mechanical  servants,  but  that 
state  of  affairs  had  passed  away  long 
since.  The  two  species  that  had  re- 
sulted from  the  evolution  of  man  were 
sliding  down  toward,  or  had  already 
arrived  at,  an  altogether  new  relation- 
ship. The  Eloi,  like  the  Carlovingian 
kings,  had  decayed  to  a  mere  beauti- 
ful futility.  They  still  possessed  the 
earth  on  sufferance,  since  the  Mor- 
locks,  subterranean  for  innumerable 
generations,  had  come  at  last  to  find 
the  daylit  surface  unendurable.  And 
the  Morlocks  made  their  garments, 
I  inferred,  and  maintained  them  in 
their  habitual  need,  perhaps  through 
the  survival  of  an  old  habit  of  ser- 
vice. They  did  it,  as  a  standing 
horse  paws  with  his  foot,  or  as  a  man 
enjoys  killing  animals  in  sport — be- 
cause ancient  and  departed  necessi- 
ties had  impressed  it  on  the  organism. 
But  clearly  the  old  order  was  already 
in  part  reversed.  The  Nemesis  of 
the  delicate  ones  was  creeping  on 
apace.      Ages     ago,    thousands     of 


WHEN  THE  NIGHT  CAME.         137 

generations  ago,  man  had  thrust  his 
brother  man  out  of  the  ease  and  sun- 
light of  life.  And  now  that  brother 
was  coming  back — changed.  Already 
the  Eloi  had  begun  to  learn  one  old 
lesson  anew.  They  were  becoming  "n 
acquainted  again  with  Fear.  / 

''Then  suddenly  came  into  my 
head  the  memory  of  the  meat  I  had 
seen  in  the  underworld.  It  seemed 
odd  how  this  memory  floated  into  my 
mind,  not  stirred  up,  as  it  were,  by 
the  current  of  my  meditations,  but 
coming  in  almost  like  a  question 
from  outside.  I  tried  to  recall  the 
form  of  it.  I  had  a  vague  sense  of 
something  familiar,  but  at  that  time 
I  could  not  tell  what  it  was. 

"  Still,  however  helpless  the  little 
people  might  be  in  the  presence  of 
their  mysterious  Fear,  I  was  differ- 
ently constituted.  I  came  out  of 
this  age  of  ours^this  ripe  prime  of 
the  human  race,  when  fear  does  not 
pafaly^e^and  mystery  has  lost  its 
terrors.      I   at   least   would    defend 


138  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

myself.  Without  further  delay  I  de- 
termined to  make  myself  arms  and 
a  fastness  where  I  might  sleep  with 
some  security.  From  that  refuge  as 
a  base  I  could  face  the  strange  world 
with  some  confidence  again,  a  confi- 
dence I  had  lost  now  that  I  realized 
to  what  uncanny  creatures  I  nightly 
lay  exposed.  I  felt  I  could  never 
sleep  again  until  my  bed  was  secure 
from  them.  I  shuddered  with  horror 
to  think  how  they  must  already  have 
examined  me  during  my  sleep. 

**I  wandered  during  the  afternoon 
along  the  valley  of  the  Thames,  but 
found  nothing  that  commended  itself 
to  my  mind  as  a  sufficiently  inacces- 
sible retiring  place.  All  the  build- 
ings and  trees  seemed  easily  practi- 
cable to  such  dexterous  climbers  as 
the  Morlocks — to  judge  by  their 
wells — must  be.  Then  the  tall  pin- 
nacles of  the  Palace  of  Green  Porce- 
lain, and  the  polished  gleam  of  its 
walls,  came  back  to  my  memory,  and 
in  the  evening,  taking  Weena  like  a 


WHEN   THE  NIGHT  CAME.  139 

child  upon  my  shoulder,  I  went  up 
the  hills  toward  the  southwest. 

"  Now  the  distance  I  had  reckoned 
was  seven  or  eight  miles,  but  it  must 
have  been  nearer  eighteen.  I  had 
first  seen  the  Palace  on  a  moist  after- 
noon when  distances  are  deceptively 
diminished.  In  addition,  the  heel  of 
one  of  my  shoes  was  loose,  and  a  nail 
was  working  through  the  sole, — they 
were  comfortable  old  shoes  I  wear 
about  indoors, — so  that  I  was  lame. 
It  was  already  long  past  sunset  before 
I  came  in  sight  of  the  Palace,  stand- 
ing out  in  black  silhouette  against  the 
pale  yellow  of  the  sky, 

"  Weena  had  been  hugely  delighted 
when  first  I  carried  her,  but  after  a 
time  she  desired  me  to  let  her  down 
and  ran  along  by  the  side  of  me,  oc- 
casionally darting  off  on  either  hand 
to  pick  flowers  to  stick  in  my  pockets. 
My  pockets  had  always  puzzled 
Weena,  but  at  the  last  she  had  con- 
cluded they  were  an  eccentric  kind 
of   vases   for   floral   decoration,     At 


I40  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

least  she  utilized  them  for  that  pur- 
pose. 

"And  that  reminds  me  !  As  I 
changed  my  jacket  I    found " 

( The  Time  Traveler  paused,  put  his 
hand  into  his  pockety  and  silently  placed 
two  withered  flowers^  not  unlike^very 
large  white  malloivs,  upon  the  little 
table.  Then  he  resumed  his  narra- 
tive. ) 

"  As  the  hush  of  evening  crept  over 
the  world  and  we  proceeded  over  the 
hill-crest  toward  Wimbledon,  Weena 
became  tired  and  wanted  to  return 
to  the  house  of  gray  stone.  But  I 
pointed  out  the  distant  pinnacles  of 
the  Palace  of  Green  Porcelain  to  her, 
and  contrived  to  make  her  under- 
stand that  we  were  seeking  a  refuge 
there  from  her  Fear. 

"You  know  that  great  pause  that 
comes  upon  things  before  the  dusk. 
Even  the  breeze  stops  in  the  trees. 
There  is  to  me  always  an  air  of  ex- 
pectation about  tliat  evening  stillness. 
The  sky  was  clear,  remote,  and  empty, 


WHEN-  THE  NIGHT  CAME.         I4I 

save  for  a  few  horizontal  bars  far 
down  in  the  sunset. 

"  That  night  the  expectation  took 
the  color  of  my  fears.  In  the  dark- 
ling calm  my  senses  seemed  preter- 
naturally  sharpened.  I  fancied  I 
could  even  feel  the  hollowness  of  the 
ground  beneath  my  feet,  could  indeed 
almost  see  through  it,  the  Morlocks  in 
their  ant-hill  going  hither  and  thither 
and  waiting  for  the  dark.  In  this 
excited  state  I  fancied  that  they 
would  take  my  invasion  of  their  bur- 
rows as  a  declaration  of  war.  And 
why  had  they  taken  my  Time  Ma- 
chine ? 

"  So  we  went  on  in  the  quiet,  and 
the  twilight  deepened  into  night. 
The  clear  blue  of  the  distance  faded 
and  one  star  after  another  came  out. 
The  ground  grew  dim  and  the  trees 
black.  Weena's  fears  and  her  fatigue 
grew  upon  her.  I  took  her  in  my 
arms  and  talked  to  her  and  caressed 
her.  Then  as  the  darkness  grew 
profounder  she  put  her  arms  round 


142  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

my  neck,  and  closing  her  eyes  tightly 
pressed  her  face  against  my  shoulder. 

"  We  went  down  a  long  slope  into 
a  valley,  and  there  in  the  dimness  I 
almost  walked  into  a  little  river.  This 
I  waded,  and  went  up  the  opposite 
side  of  the  valley,  past  a  number  of 
sleeping  houses,  and  by  a  statue  that 
appeared  to  me  in  the  indistinct  light 
to  represent  a  faun,  or  some  such  fig- 
ure, minus  the  head.  Here,  too,  were 
acacias.  So  far,  I  had  seen  nothing 
of  the  Morlocks,  but  it  was  yet  early 
in  the  night,  and  the  darker  hours 
before  the  old  moon  rose  were  still 
to  come. 

"  From  the  brow  of  the  next  hill  I 
saw  a  thick  wood  spreading  wide  and 
black  before  me.  At  this  I  hesitated. 
I  could  see  no  end  to  it  either  to  the 
right  or  to  the  left.  Feeling  tired, — 
my  feet,  in  particular,  were  very  sore, 
— I  carefully  lowered  Weena  from 
my  shoulder  as  I  halted,  and  sat 
down  upon  the  turf.  I  could  no 
longer  see  the  Palace  of  Green  Por- 


WHEN   THE  NIGHT  CAME.  143 

celain,  and  I  was  in  doubt  of  my 
direction. 

**I  looked  into  the  thickness  of  the 
wood,  and  thought  of  what  it  might 
hide.  Under  that  dense  tangle  of 
branches  one  would  be  out  of  sight 
of  the  stars.  Even  were  there  no 
other  lurking  danger  there, — a  danger 
I  did  not  care  to  let  my  imagination 
loose  upon, — there  would  still  be  all 
the  roots  to  stumble  over,  and  the 
tree  boles  to  strike  myself  against.  I 
was  very  tired,  too,  after  the  excite- 
ments of  the  day,  and  I  decided  that 
I  would  not  face  it,  but  would  pass 
the  night  upon   the  open  hill. 

"  Weena,  I  was  glad  to  discover, 
was  fast  asleep.  I  carefully  wrapped 
her  in  my  jacket,  and  sat  down  be- 
side her  to  wait  for  the  moonrise. 
The  hillside  upon  which  I  sat  was 
quiet  and  deserted,  but  from  the 
black  of  the  wood  there  came  now 
and  then  a  stir  of  living  things. 

"  Above  me  shone  the  stars,  for 
the  night  was  clear.     I  felt  a  certain 


144  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

sense  of  friendly  comfort  in  their 
twinkling.  All  the  old  constellations 
had  gone  from  the  sky,  however,  for 
that  slow  movement  that  is  imper- 
ceptible in  a  dozen  human  lifetimes, 
had  long  ago  rearranged  them  in  un- 
familiar groupings.  But  the  Milky 
Way,  it  seemed  to  me,  was  still  the 
same  tattered  streamer  of  star  dust 
as  of  yore.  Southward — as  I  judged 
it — was  a  very  bright  red  star  that 
was  new  to  me.  It  was  even  more 
splendid  than  our  own  green  Sirius. 
Amid  all  these  scintillating  points  of 
light,  one  planet  shone  kindly  and 
steadily  like  the  face  of  an  old 
friend. 

"  Looking  at  these  stars  suddenly 
dwarfed  my  own  troubles  and  all  the 
gravities  of  terrestrial  life.  I  thought 
of  their  unfathomable  distance,  and 
the  slow,  inevitable  drift  of  their 
movements  out  of  the  unknown  past 
into  the  unknown  future.  I  thought 
of  the  great  precessional  cycle  that 
the  pole  of  the  earth  describes  in  the 


WHEN  THE  NIGHT  CAME.         145 

heavens.  Only  forty  times  had  that 
silent  revolution  occurred  during  all 
the  years  I  had  traversed.  And  dur- 
ing those  few  revolutions,  all  the 
activity,  all  the  traditions,  the  care- 
fully planned  organizations,  the  na- 
tions, languages,  literature,  aspira- 
tions, even  the  mere  memory  of  man 
as  I  knew  man,  had  been  swept  out 
of  existence.  Instead  were  these 
frail  creatures  who  had  forgotten 
their  high  ancestry,  and  the  white 
animals  of  which  I  went  in  fear. 
Then  I  thought  of  the  great  fear 
there  was  between  these  two  species, 
and  for  the  first  time,  with  a  sudden 
shiver,  came  the  clear  knowledge  of 
what  the  meat  I  had  seen  might  be. 
Yet  it  was  too  horrible  !  I  looked  at 
little  Weena  sleeping  beside  me,  her 
face  white  and  starlike  under  the 
stars,  and  forthwith  dismissed  the 
thought  from  my  mind. 

"  Through  that  long  night  I  kept 
my  mind  off  the  Morlocks  as  well  as 
I  could,  and  whiled  away  the  time  by 


146  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

trying  to  fancy  I  could  find  traces  of 
the  old  constellations  among  the  new 
confusion.  The  sky  kept  very  clear, 
except  a  hazy  cloud  or  so.  No  doubt 
I  dozed  at  times.  Then,  as  my  vigil 
wore  on,  came  a  faintness  in  the  east- 
ward sky  like  the  reflection  of  some 
colorless  fire,  and  the  old  moon  rose 
thin  and  peaked  and  white.  And 
close  behind  and  overtaking  it  and 
overflowing  it  the  dawn  came,  pale 
at  first  and  then  growing  pink  and 
warm. 

"  No  Morlocks  had  approached  us. 
Indeed,  I  had  seen  none  upon  the 
hill  that  night.  And  in  the  confi- 
dence of  renewed  day  it  almost 
seemed  to  me  that  my  fear  had  been 
unreasonable.  I  stood  up,  and  found 
my  foot  with  the  loose  heel  swollen 
at  the  ankle  and  painful  under  the 
heel.  I  sat  down  again,  took  off  my 
shoes,  and  flung  them  away. 

"  I  awakened  Weena,  and  forthwith 
we  went  down  into  the  wood,  now 
green  and  pleasant,  instead  of  black 


WHEN  THE  NIGHT  CAME.  147 

and  forbidding.  And  there  we  found 
some  fruit  wherewith  to  break  our 
fast.  We  soon  met  others  of  the 
dainty  ones,  laughing  and  dancing  in 
the  sunh'ght,  as  though  there  was  no 
such  thing  in  nature  as  the  night. 

"  Then  I  thought  once  more  of  the 
meat  that  I  had  seen,  I  felt  assured 
now  of  what  it  was,  and,  from  the 
bottom  of  my  heart,  I  pitied  this  last 
feeble  rill  from  the  great  flood  of 
humanity.  Clearly,  somewhere  in 
the  long  ages  of  human  decay,  the 
food  of  the  Morlocks  had  run  short. 
Possibly  they  had  lived  on  rats  and 
suchlike  vermin.  Even  now,  man  is 
far  less  discriminating  and  exclusive 
in  his  food  than  he  was,  far  less  than 
any  monkey.  His  prejudice  against 
human  flesh  is  no  deep-seated  in- 
stinct. And  so  these  inhuman  sons 
of  men 

"  I  tried  to  look  at  the  thing  in  a 
scientific  spirit.  After  all,  these  were 
scarcely  to  be  counted  human  beings  ; 
less  human  they  were  and  more  re- 


148  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

mote  than  our  cannibal  ancestors 
of  three  or  four  thousand  years  ago. 
And  the  minds  that  would  have  made 
this  state  torment  were  gone.  Why 
I  should  I  trouble  ?  The  Eloi  were 
'  mere  fatted  cattle,  which  the  antlike 
Morlocks  preserved  and  preyed  upon, 
probably  saw  to  the  breeding  of. 
And  there  was  Weena  dancing  by 
my  side  ! 

*'  Then  I  tried  to  preserve  myself 
from  the  horror  that  was  coming 
upon  me  by  regarding  it  as  a  rigor- 
ous punishment  of  human  selfish- 
ness ;  man  liad  been  content  to  live 
in  ease  and  delight  upon  the  labors 
of  his  fellow-men  ;  had  taken  Neces- 
sity as  his  watchword  and  excuse, 
and  in  fullness  of  time  Necessity  had 
come  home  to  him.  I  tried  even  a 
Carlyle-like  scorn  of  these  wretched 
aristocrats  in  decline. 

"  But  this  attitude  of  mind  was  im- 
possible. However  great  their  intel- 
lectual degradation,  the  Eloi  had 
kept  too  much  of   the  human  form 


WHEN  THE  NIGHT  CAME.         149 

not  to  claim  my  sympathy,  and  to 
make  me  perforce  a  participant  in 
their  degradation  and  their  Fear^  j 
"I  had  at  this  time  very  vague 
ideas  of  what  course  I  should  pursue. 
My  first  idea  was  to  secure  some 
safe  place  of  refuge  for  Weena  and 
myself,  and  to  make  myself  such 
arms  of  metal  or  stone  as  I  could 
contrive.  That  necessity  was  im- 
mediate. In  the  next  place,  I  hoped 
to  procure  some  means  of  fire,  so 
that  I  should  have  the  weapon  of  a 
torch  at  hand,  for  nothing,  I  knew, 
would  be  more  efficient  against  these 
Morlocks.  Then  I  wanted  to  ar- 
range some  contrivance  to  break 
open  the  doors  of  bronze  under  the 
white  sphinx.  I  had  in  mind  a  bat- 
tering ram.  I  had  a  persuasion  that 
if  I  could  enter  these  doors  and  carry 
a  blaze  of  light  before  me,  I  should 
discover  the  Time  Machine  and 
escape.  I  could  not  imagine  the 
Morlocks  were  powerful  enough  to 
remove    it    far.     Weena    I   had   re* 


I50  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

solved  to  bring  with  me  to  our  own 
Time. 

"  Turning  such  schemes  over  in 
my  mind,  I  pursued  our  way  toward 
the  building  which  my  fancy  had 
chosen   as   our   dwelling-place. 


CHAPTER  X. 

^be  ipalace  of  (Breen  porcelain. 

HIS  Palace  of  Green  Porce- 
lain, when  we  approached 
it  about  noon,  was,  I  found, 
deserted  and  falling  into  ruin.  Only 
ragged  vestiges  of  glass  remained  in 
its  windows,  and  great  sheets  of  the 
green  facing  had  fallen  away  in 
places  from  the  corroded  metallic 
framework.  It  lay  very  high  upon  a 
turfy  down,  and,  looking  northeast- 
ward before  I  entered  it,  I  was  sur- 
prised to  see  a  large  estuary,  or  an 
arm  of  the  sea,  where  I  judged 
Wandsworth  and  Battersea  must 
once  have  been.  I  thought  then — 
though  I  never  followed  the  thought 
up — of  what  might  have  happened, 
or  might  be  happening,  to  the  living 
things  in  the  sea. 


152  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

*'  The  material  of  the  Palace 
proved,  on  examination,  to  be  in- 
deed porcelain,  and  above  the  face 
of  it  I  saw  an  inscription  in  some 
unknown  characters.  I  thought, 
rather  foolishly,  that  Weena  might 
help  me  to  interpret  this,  but  I  only 
learned  that  the  bare  idea  of  writing 
had  never  entered  her  head.  She 
always  seemed  to  me,  I  fancy,  more 
human  than  she  was,  perhaps  be- 
cause her  affection  was  so  human. 

"  Within  the  big  valves  of  the 
door — which  were  open  and  broken — 
we  found,  instead  of  the  customary 
hall,  a  long  gallery  lit  by  many  side 
windows.  Even  at  the  first  glance  I 
was  reminded  of  a  museum.  The 
tiled  floor  was  thick  with  dust,  and  a 
remarkable  array  of  miscellaneous 
objects  were  shrouded  in  the  same 
gray  covering.  Clearly,  the  place 
had  been  derelict  for  a  very  consid- 
erable time. 

"  Then  I  perceived,  standing  strange 
and  guant  in  the  center  of  the  hall, 


PA  LA  CE  OF  GREEN  FORCE  LA  IN.      153 

what  was  clearly  the  lower  part  of  the 
skeleton  of  some  huge  animal.  As  I 
approached  this  I  recognized  by  the 
oblique  feet  that  it  was  some  extinct 
creature  after  the  fashion  of  the  me- 
gatherium. The  skull  and  the  upper 
bones  lay  beside  it  in  the  thick  dust, 
and  in  one  place  where  rain  water 
had  dripped  through  some  leak  in 
the  roof,  the  skeleton  had  decayed 
away.  Further  along  the  gallery  was 
the  huge  skeleton  barrel  of  a  bronio- 
saurus.  My  museum  hypothesis  was 
confirmed.  Going  toward  the  side  of 
the  gallery  I  found  what  appeared  to 
be  sloping  shelves,  and  clearing  away 
the  thick  dust,  I  found  the  old  famil- 
iar glass  cases  of  our  own  time.  But 
these  must  have  been  air-tight  to  judge 
from  the  fair  preservation  of  some  of 
their  contents. 

"  Clearly  we  stood  among  the  ruins 
of  some  latter  day  South  Kensington. 
Here  apparently  was  the  Palasonto- 
logical  Section,  and  a  very  splendid 
array  of  fossils  it  must  have  been  ; 


154  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

though  the  inevitable  process  of 
decay  that  had  been  warded  off  for  a 
time,  and  had,  through  the  extinction 
of  bacteria  and  fungi,  lost  ninety- 
nine-hundreths  of  its  force,  was 
nevertheless,  with  extreme  sureness, 
if  with  extreme  slowness,  at  work 
again  upon  all  its  treasures.  Here 
and  there  I  found  traces  of  the  little 
people  in  the  shape  of  rare  fossils 
broken  to  pieces  or  threaded  in 
strings  upon  reeds.  And  the  cases 
had  in  some  instances  been  bodily 
removed — by  the  Morlocks,  as  I 
judged. 

"  The  place  was  very  silent.  The 
thick  dust  deadened  our  footsteps. 
Weena,  who  had  been  rolling  a  sea 
urchin  down  the  sloping  glass  of  a 
case,  presently  came,  as  I  stared  about 
me,  and  very  quietly  took  my  hand 
and  stood  beside  me. 

"  At  first  I  was  so  much  surprised 
by  this  ancient  monument  of  an  in- 
tellectual age  that  I  gave  no  thought 
to  the  possibilities  it  presented  me. 


PA  LA  CE  OF  GREEN  PORCELA  IN.      155 

Even  my  preoccupation  about  the 
Time  Machine  and  the  Morlocks 
receded  a  little  from  my  mind.  The 
curiosity  concerning  human  destiny 
that  had  led  to  my  time  traveling 
was  removed.  Now,  judging  from 
the  size  of  the  place,  this  Palace  of 
Green  Porcelain  had  a  great  deal 
more  in  it  than  a  gallery  of  palaeon- 
tology ;  possibly  historical  galleries, 
it  might  be  even  a  library.  To  me, 
at  least  in  my  present  circumstances, 
these  would  be  vastly  more  interesting 
than  this  spectacle  of  old-time  geology 
in  decay. 

"  Exploring,  I  found  another  short 
gallery  running  transversely  to  the 
first.  This  appeared  to  be  devoted 
to  minerals,  and  the  sight  of  a  block 
of  sulphur  set  my  mind  running  on 
gunpowder.  But  I  could  find  no 
saltpeter  ;  indeed  no  nitrates  of  any 
kind.  Doubtless  they  had  deli- 
quesced ages  ago.  Yet  the  sulphur 
hung  in  my  mind  and  set  up  a  train 
of  thinking.     As  for  the  rest  of  the 


156  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

contents  of  that  place,  though  on  the 
whole  they  were  the  best  preserved 
of  all  I  saw — I  had  little  interest.  I 
am  no  specialist  in  mineralogy,  and  I 
soon  went  on  down  a  very  ruinous 
aisle  running  parallel  to  the  first  hall 
I  had  entered. 

"  Apparently  this  section  had  been 
devoted  to  Natural  History,  but  here 
everything  had  long  since  passed  out 
of  recognition.  A  few  shriveled 
vestiges  of  what  had  once  been 
stuffed  animals,  dried-up  mummies 
in  jars  that  had  once  held  spirit,  a 
brown  dust  of  departed  plants,  that 
was  all.  I  was  sorry  for  this,  because 
I  should  have  been  glad  to  trace  the 
patient  readjustments  by  which  the 
conquest  of  animated  nature  had 
been  attained. 

"  From  this  we  come  to  a  gallery  of 
simply  colossal  proportions,  but  singu- 
larly ill  lit,  and  with  its  floor  running 
downward  at  a  slight  angle  from  the 
end  at  which  I  entered  it.  At  inter- 
vals there  hung  white  globes  from 


PA  LA  CE  OF  GREEN  PORCELA  IN.      157 

the  ceiling, — many  of  them  cracked 
and  smashed, — which  suggested  that 
originally  the  place  had  been  artifici- 
ally lit.  Here  I  was  more  in  my  ele- 
ment, for  I  found  rising  on  either 
side  of  me  the  huge  bulks  of  big  ma- 
chines, all  greatly  corroded,  and  many 
broken  down,  but  some  still  fairly 
complete  in  all  their  parts.  You 
know  I  have  a  certain  weakness  for 
mechanism,  and  I  was  inclined  to 
linger  among  these,  the  more  so  since 
for  the  most  part  they  had  the  inter- -^^ 
est  of  puzzles,  and  I  could  make 
only  the  vaguest  guesses  of  what 
they  were  for.  I  fancied  if  I  could 
solve  these  puzzles  I  should  find 
myself  in  the  possession  of  powers 
that  might  be  of  use  against  the  Mor- 
locks. 

''Suddenly  Weena  came  very  close 
to  my  side,  so  suddenly  that  she 
startled  me. 

"  Had  it  not  been  for  her  I  do 
not  think  I  should  have  noticed  that 
the   floor   of    the  gallery  sloped   at 


158  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

all.*  The  end  I  had  entered  was  quite 
above  ground,  and  was  lit  by  rare 
slit-like  windows.  As  one  went  down 
the  length  of  the  place,  the  ground 
came  up  against  these  windows,  un- 
til there  was  at  last  a  pit  like  the 
'  area '  of  a  London  house,  before 
each,  and  only  a  narrow  line  of  day- 
light at  the  top.  1  went  slowly  along, 
puzzling  about  the  machines,  and  had 
been  too  intent  upon  them  to  notice 
the  gradual  diminution  of  the  light, 
until  Weena's  increasing  apprehen- 
sion attracted  my  attention. 

"  Then  I  saw  that  the  gallery  ran 
down  at  last  into  a  thick  darkness. 
I  hesitated  about  proceeding,  and 
then  as  I  looked  around  me,  I  saw 
that  the  dust  was  here  less  abundant 
and  its  surface  less  even.  Further 
away  toward  the  dim,  it  appeared  to 
be  broken  by  a  number  of  small  nar- 
row footprints.     At  that  my  sense  of 

*  It  may  be,  of  course,  that  the  floor  did  not 
slope,  but  that  the  museum  was  built  upon 
the  side  of  the  hill. — Editor. 


PALACE  OF  GREEN  PORCELAIN.      159 

the  immediate  presence  of  the  Mor- 
locks  revived.  I  felt  that  I  was  wast- 
ing my  time  in  my  academic  exami- 
nation of  this  machinery.  I  called 
to  mind  that  it  was  already  far  ad- 
vanced in  the  afternoon,  and  that  I 
had  still  no  weapon,  no  refuge,  and  no 
means  of  making  a  fire.  And  then, 
down  in  the  remote  black  of  the  gal- 
lery, I  heard  a  peculiar  pattering  and 
those  same  odd  noises  I  had  heard 
down  the  well. 

"  I  took  Weena's  hand.  Then 
struck  with  a  sudden  idea,  I  left  her, 
and  turned  to  a  machine  from  which 
X-)rojected  a  lever  not  unlike  those  in 
a  signal  box.  Clambering  upon  the 
stand  of  the  machine  and  grasping 
this  lever  in  my  hands,  I  put  all  my 
weight  upon  it  sideways.  Weena^ 
deserted  in  the  central  aisle,  began 
suddenly  to  whimper.  I  had  judged 
the  strength  of  the  lever  pretty  cor- 
rectly, for  it  snapped  after  a  minute's 
strain,  and  I  rejoined  Weena  with  a 
mace  in  my  hand  more  than  sufficient, 


l6o  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

I  judged,  for  any  Morlock  skull  I 
might  encounter. 

"  And  I  longed  very  much  to  kill 
a  Morlock  or  so.  Very  inhuman, 
you  may  think,  to  want  to  go  killing 
one's  own  descendants,  but  it  was 
impossible  somehow  to  feel  any 
humanity  in  the  things.  Only  my 
disinclination  to  leave  Weena,  and  a 
persuasion  that  if  I  began  to  slake 
my  thirst  for  murder  my  Time  Ma- 
chine might  suffer,  restrained  me  from 
going  straight  down  the  gallery  and 
killing  the  brutes  I  heard  there. 

"  Mace  in  one  hand  and  Weena  in 
the  other  we  went  out  of  that  gallery 
and  into  another  still  larger,  which  at 
the  first  glance  reminded  me  of  a 
military  chapel  hung  with  tattered 
flags.  The  brown  and  charred  rags 
that  hung  from  the  sides  of  it,  I 
presently  recognized  as  the  decaying 
vestiges  of  books.  They  had  long 
since  dropped  to  pieces  and  every 
semblance  of  print  had  left  them. 
But  here  and  there  were  warped  and 


PA  LA  CE  OF  GREEN  POR  CELA  IN.      1 6 1 

cracked  boards  and  metallic  clasps 
that  told  the  tale  well  enough. 

*'  Had  I  been  a  literary  man  I  might 
perhaps  have  moralized  upon  the 
futility  of  all  ambition,  but  as  it  was, 
the  thought  that  struck  me  with 
keenest  force,  was  the  enormous 
waste  of  labor  rather  than  of  hope,  to 
which  this  somber  gallery  of  rotting 
paper  testified.  At  the  time  I  will 
confess,  though  it  seems  a  petty 
trait  now,  that  I  thought  chiefly  of 
the  Philosophical  Transactions,  and 
my  own  seventeen  papers  upon 
physical  optics. 

"  Then  going  up  a  broad  staircase 
we  came  to  what  may  once  have  been 
a  gallery  of  technical  chemistry. 
And  here  I  had  not  a  little  hope  of 
discovering  something  to  help  me. 
Except  at  one  end  where  the  roof 
had  collapsed,  this  gallery  was  well 
preserved.  I  went  eagerly  to  every 
unbroken  case.  And  at  last,  in  one 
of  the  really  air-tight  cases,  I  found  a 
box   of   matches.       Very    eagerly    I 


1 62  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

tried  them.  They  were  perfectly 
good.     They  were  not  even  damp. 

"  At  that  discovery  I  suddenly 
turned  to  Weena.  *  Dance  ! '  I  cried 
to  her  in  her  own  tongue.  For  now 
I  had  a  weapon  indeed  against  the 
horrible  creatures  we  feared.  And 
so  in  that  derelict  museum,  upon  the 
thick  soft  coating  of  dust,  to  Weena's 
huge  delight,  I  solemnly  performed 
a  sort  of  composite  dance,  whistling 
'  The  Land  of  the  Leal '  as  cheer- 
fully as  I  could.  In  part  it  was  a 
modest  cancan,  in  part  a  step  dance, 
in  part  a  skirt  dance, — so  far  as  my 
tail  coat  permitted, — and  in  part 
original.  For  naturally  I  am  inven- 
tive, as  you  know. 

"  Now,  I  still  think  that  for  this  box 
of  matches  to  have  escaped  the  wear 
of  time  for  immemorial  years  was  a 
strange,  and  for  me,  a  most  fortunate 
thing.  Yet  oddly  enough  I  found 
here  a  far  more  unlikely  substance, 
and  that  was  camphor.  I  found  it  in 
a  sealed  jar,  that,  by  chance,  I  sup- 


PALACE  OF  GREEN  PORCELAIN.      163 

posed  had  been  really  hermetically 
sealed.  I  fancied  at  first  the  stuff 
was  paraffin  wax^  and  smashed 
the  jar  accordingly.  But  the  odor 
of  camphor  was  unmistakable.  It 
struck  me  as  singularly  odd,  that 
among  the  universal  decay,  this  vola- 
tile substance  had  chanced  to  survive, 
perhaps  through  many  thousand 
years.  Is  reminded  me  of  a  sepia 
painting  I  had  once  seen  done  from 
the  ink  of  a  fossil  Belemnite  that 
must  have  perished  and  become 
fossilized  millions  of  years  ago.  I 
was  about  to  throw  this  camphor  on 
one  side,  and  then  remembering  that 
it  was  inflammable  and  burnt  with  a 
good  bright  flame,  I  put  it  into  my 
pocket. 

"  I  found  no  explosives,  however, 
or  any  means  of  breaking  down  the 
bronze  doors.  As  yet  my  iron  crow- 
bar was  the  most  hopeful  thing  I  had 
chanced  upon.  Nevertheless  I  left 
that  gallery  greatly  elated  by  my  dis- 
coveries. 


l64  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

*'  I  cannot  tell  you  the  whole  story 
of  my  exploration  through  that  long 
afternoon.  It  would  require  a  great 
effort  of  memory  to  recall  it  at  all  in 
the  proper  order,  I  remember  a  long 
gallery  containing  the  rusting  stands 
of  arms  of  all  ages,  and  that  I  hesi- 
tated between  my  crowbar  and  a 
hatchet  or  a  sword.  I  could  not 
carry  both,  however,  and  my  bar  of 
iron,  after  all,  promised  best  against 
the  bronze  gates.  There  were  rusty 
guns,  pistols,  and  rifles  here  ;  most  of 
them  were  masses  of  rust,  but  many 
of  aluminum,  and  still  fairly  sound. 
But  any  cartridges  or  powder  there 
may  have  been  had  rotted  into  dust. 
One  corner  I  saw  was  charred  and 
shattered  ;  perhaps,  I  thought,  by  an 
explosion  among  the  specimens 
there.  In  another  place  was  a  vast 
array  of  idols — Polynesian,  Mexican, 
Grecian,  Phoenician,  every  country 
on  earth,  I  should  think.  And  here, 
yielding  to  an  irresistible  impulse,  I 
wrote  my  name  upon  the  nose  of  a 


PALACE   OF  GREEN  PORCELAIN.      1 65 

Steatite  monster  from  South  America 
that  particularly  took  my  fancy. 

"  As  the  evening  drew  on  my  inter- 
est waned.  I  went  through  gallery 
after  gallery,  dusty,  silent,  often  ruirt- 
ous,  the  exhibits  sometimes  mere  heaps 
of  rust  and  lignite,  sometimes  fresiier. 
In  one  place  I  suddenly  found  my- 
self near  a  model  of  a  tin  mine,  and 
then  by  the  merest  accident  I  dis- 
covered in  an  air-tight  case  two  dyna- 
mite cartridges  ;  I  shouted  '  Eureka  ! ' 
and  smashed  the  case  joyfully.  Then 
came  a  doubt.  I  hesitated,  and  then 
selecting  a  little  side  gallery  I  made 
my  essay.  I  never  felt  such  a  bitter 
disappointment  as  I  did  then,  wait- 
ing five,  ten,  fifteen  minutes  for  the 
explosion  that  never  came.  Of 
course  the  things  were  dummies,  as  I 
might  have  guessed  from  their  pres- 
ence there.  I  really  believe  had  they 
not  been  so,  I  should  have  rushed  off 
incontinently  there  and  then,  and 
blown  sphinx,  bronze  doors,  and,  as 
it  proved,  my  chances  of  finding  the 


1 66  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

Time  Machine  all  together  into  non- 
existence. 

"  It  was  after  that,  I  think,  that  we 
came  to  a  little  open  court  within 
the  palace,  turfed  and  with  three 
fruit  trees.  There  it  was  we  rested 
and  refreshed  ourselves. 

"  Toward  sunset  I  began  to  con- 
sider our  position.  Night  was  now 
creeping  upon  us  and  my  inaccessi- 
ble hiding-place  was  still  to  be  found. 
But  that  troubled  me  very  little  now. 
I  had  in  my  possession  a  thing  that 
was  perhaps  the  best  of  all  defenses 
against  the  Morlocks.  I  had  matches 
again.  I  also  had  the  camphor  in  my 
pocket  if  a  blaze  were  required.  It 
seemed  to  me  that  the  best  thing  we 
could  do  would  be  to  pass  the  night 
in  the  open  again,  protected  by  afire. 

"  In  the  morning  there  was  the 
Time  Machine  to  obtain.  Toward 
that  as  yet  I  had  only  my  iron  mace. 
But  now  with  my  growing  knowledge 
I  felt  very  differently  toward  the 
bronze     doors     than    I     had     done 


PALACE  OF  GREEN  PORCELAIN.      167 

hitherto.  Up  to  this  I  had  refrained 
from  forcing  them,  largely  because  of 
the  mystery  on  the  other  side.  They 
had  never  impressed  me  as  being 
very  strong,  and  I  hoped  to  find  my 
bar  of  iron  not  altogether  inadequate 
for  the  work. 


CHAPTER  XI. 
•ffn  tbe  H)arftne06  of  the  potest 

E  emerged  from  the  Palace  of 
Green  Porcelain  while  the 
sun  was  still  in  part  above 
the  horizon.  I  was  determined  to 
reach  the  white  sphinx  early  the 
next  morning,  and  I  proposed  before 
the  dusk  came  to  push  through  the 
woods  that  had  stopped  me  on  the 
previous  journey.  My  plan  was  to 
go  as  far  as  possible  that  night,  and 
then,  building  a  fire  about  us,  to 
sleep  under  the  protection  of  its 
glare.  Accordingly  as  we  went  along 
I  gathered  any  sticks  or  dried  grass  I 
saw,  and  presently  had  my  arms  full 
of  such  litter.  So  loaded,  our  prog- 
ress was  slower  than  I  had  antici- 
pated, and  besides,  VVeena  was  tired. 
I,  too,  began  to  suffer  from  sleepi- 

i68 


IN  THE  DA  RKNESS  OF  THE  FORES  T.      169 

ness,  and  it  was  fully  night  before  we 
reached  the  wood. 

"Now,  upon  the  shrubby  hill  upon 
the  edge  of  this,  Weena  would  have 
stopped,  fearing  the  darkness  before 
us.  But  a  singular  sense  of  impend- 
ing calamity,  that  should  indeed  have 
served  me  as  a  warning,  drove  me 
onward.  I  had  been  without  sleep 
for  the  length  of  a  night  and  two 
days,  and  I  was  feverish  and  irritable. 
I  felt  sleep  coming  upon  me,  and 
with  it  the  Morlocks. 

"While  we  hesitated  I  saw  among 
the  bushes  up  the  slope  behind  us, 
and  dim  against  the  sky,  three 
crouching  figures.  There  was  scrub 
and  long  grass  all  about  us,  and  I 
did  not  feel  safe  from  their  insidious 
approach.  The  forest,  I  calculated, 
was  rather  less  than  a  mile  in 
breadth.  If  we  could  get  through 
it,  the  hillside  beyond  was  bare,  and 
to  me  it  seemed  an  altogether  safer 
resting-place.  I  thought  that  with 
my  matches  and  the  camphor  T  could 


lyo  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

contrive  to  keep  my  path  illuminated 
through  the  woods.  Yet  it  was  evi- 
dent that  if  I  was  to  flourish  matches 
with  my  hands  I  should  have  to 
abandon  my  firewood.  So  rather 
reluctantly  I  put  this  down. 

"Then  it  came  into  my  head  that  I 
would  amaze  our  friends  behind  by 
lighting  it.  Ultimately  I  was  to  dis- 
cover the  atrocious  folly  of  this  pro- 
ceeding, but  just  then  it  came  to  my 
mind  as  an  ingenious  move  for  cover- 
ing our  retreat. 

"I  don't  know  if  you  have  ever 
thought  what  a  rare  thing  in  the 
absence  of  man  and  in  a  temperate 
climate,  flames  must  be.  The  sun's 
heat  is  rarely  strong  enough  to  burn 
even  when  focussed  by  dewdrops,  as 
is  sometimes  the  case  in  more  tropical 
districts.  Lightning  may  blast  and 
blacken,  but  it  rarely  gives  rise  to 
widespread  fire.  Decaying  vegeta- 
tion may  occasionally  smoulder  with 
the  heat  of  its  fermentation,  but  this 
again  rarely  results  in  flames.     Now, 


m  THE  DA  RKNESS  OF  THE  FORES  T.      1 7 1 

in  this  decadent  age  the  art  of  fire- 
making  had  been  altogether  forgotten 
on  the  earth.  The  red  tongues  that 
went  licking  up  my  heap  of  wood 
were  an  altogether  new  and  strange 
thing  to  Weena. 

"She  wanted  to  run  to  it  and  play 
with  it.  I  believe  she  would  have 
cast  herself  into  it  had  I  not  re- 
strained her.  But  I  caught  her  up 
and  in  spite  of  her  struggles  plunged 
boldly  before  me  into  the  wood. 
For  a  little  way  the  glare  of  my  fire 
lit  the  path.  Looking  back  presently 
I  could  see,  through  the  crowded  tree 
stems,  that  from  my  heap  of  sticks 
the  blaze  had  spread  to  some  bushes 
adjacent,  and  a  curved  line  of  fire 
was  creeping  up  the  grass  of  the  hill. 
I  laughed  at  that. 

"Then  I  turned  toward  the  dark 
trees  before  me  again.  It  was  very 
black  and  Weena  clung  to  me  con- 
vulsively, but  there  was  still,  as  my 
eyes  grew  accustomed  to  the  darkness, 
sufficient  light  for  me  to  avoid  blun- 


172  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

dering  against  the  stems.  Overhead 
it  was  simply  black,  except  when 
here  and  there  a  gap  of  remote  blue 
sky  shone  down  upon  me.  I  lit 
none  of  my  matches  because  I  had 
no  hand  free.  Upon  my  left  arm  I 
carried  my  little  one,  in  my  right  hand 
I  had  the  iron  bar  I  had  wrenched 
from  the  machine. 

"For  some  way  I  heard  nothing 
but  the  crackling  twigs  under  my  feet, 
the  faint  rustle  of  the  breeze  above, 
and  my  breathing  and  the  throb  of 
the  blood  vessels  in  my  ears.  Then  I 
seemed  to  hear  a  pattering  about  me. 

'  *  I  pushed  on  grimly.  The  patter- 
ing became  more  distinct,  and  then 
I  heard  the  same  queer  sounds  and 
voices  I  had  heard  before  in  the 
underworld.  There  were  evidently 
several  of  the  Morlocks,  and  they 
were  closing  in  upon  me. 

**  In  another  minute  I  felt  a  tug  at 
my  coat,  then  something  at  my  arm. 
Weena  shivered  violently  and  became 
quite  still. 


^«^ 


IN  THE  DA  RKNESS  OF  THE  FORES  T.      173 

"It  was  time  for  a  match.  But  to 
get  at  that  I  must  put  her  down.  I 
did  so,  and  immediately  as  I  fumbled 
with  my  pocket  a  struggle  began  in 
the  darkness  about  my  knees,  per- 
fectly silent  on  her  part  and  with  the 
same  peculiar  cooing  sounds  on  the 
part  of  the  Morlocks.  Soft  little 
hands,  too,  were  creeping  over  my  coat 
and  back,  touching  even  my  neck. 

"The  match  scratched  and  fizzed. 
I  held  it  flaring,  and  immediately  the 
white  backs  of  the  Morlocks  became 
visible  as  they  fled  amid  the  trees. 
I  hastily  took  a  lump  of  camphor 
from  my  pocket  and  prepared  to 
light  it  as  soon  as  the  match  waned. 

"Then  I  looked  at  Weena.  She 
was  lying  clutching  my  feet  and 
quite  motionless,  with  her  face  to  the 
ground.  With  a  sudden  fright  I 
stooped  to  her.  She  seemed  scarcely 
to  breathe.  I  lit  the  block  of  cam- 
phor and  flung  it  to  the  ground,  and 
as  it  spit  and  flared  up  and  drove 
back  the  Morlocks  and  the  shadows, 


174  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

I  knelt  down  and  lifted  up  Weena. 
The  wood  behind  seemed  full  of 
the  stir  and  murmur  of  a  great  com- 
pany of  creatures. 

"Apparently  she  had  fainted.  I 
put  her  carefully  upon  my  shoulder 
and  rose  to  push  on,  and  then  came 
a  horrible  realization. 

"While  maneuvering  with  my 
matches  and  Weena,  I  had  turned 
myself  about  several  times,  and  now 
I  had  not  the  faintest  idea  in  what 
direction  my  path  lay.  For  all  I 
knew  I  might  be  facing  back  toward 
the  Palace  of  Green  Porcelain. 

"I  found  myself  in  a  cold  perspira- 
tion. I  had  to  think  rapidly  what  to 
do.  I  determined  to  build  a  fire  and 
encamp  where  we  were.  I  put  the 
motionless  Weena  down  upon  a  turfy 
bole.  Very  hastily,  as  my  first  lump 
of  camphor  waned,  I  began  collecting 
sticks  and  leaves, 

"Here  and  there  out  of  the  dark- 
ness round  me  the  eyes  of  the  Mor- 
locks  shone  like  carbuncles. 


IN  THE  DA  RKNESS  OF  THE  FORES  T.      11 S 

"Presently  the  camphor  flickered 
and  went  out.  I  lit  a  match,  and  as 
I  did  so  saw  two  white  forms  that 
had  been  approaching  Weena  dash 
hastily  back.  One  was  so  blinded 
by  the  light  that  he  came  straight 
for  me,  and  I  felt  his  bones  grind 
under  the  blow  of  my  fist.  He  gave 
a  whoop  of  dismay,  staggered  a  little 
way,  and  fell  down. 

"I  lit  another  piece  of  camphor 
and  went  on  gathering  my  bonfire. 
Presently  I  noticed  how  dry  was 
some  of  the  foliage  above  me,  for 
since  I  had  arrived  on  the  Time 
Machine,  a  matter  of  a  week,  no  rain 
had  fallen.  So  instead  of  casting 
about  among  the  trees  for  fallen 
twigs  I  began  leaping  up  and  drag- 
ging down  branches.  Very  soon  I 
had  a  choking  smoky  fire  of  green 
wood  and  dry  sticks,  and  could  save 
my  other  lumps  of  camphor. 

"Then  I  turned  to  where  Weena  lay 
beside  my  iron  mace.  I  tried  what 
I  could  to  revive  her,  but  she  lay  like 


176  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

one  dead.  I  could  not  even  satisfy 
myself  whether  or  not  she  breathed. 
"Now  the  smoke  of  the  fire  beat 
over  toward  me,  and  it  must  have 
made  me  suddenly  heavy.  More- 
over the  vapor  of  camphor  was  in 
the  air.  My  fire  would  not  want 
replenishing  for  an  hour  or  so.  I 
felt  very  weary  after  my  exertion  and 
sat  down.  The  wood,  too,  was  full 
of  a  slumberous  murmur  that  I  did 
not  understand. 

"I  seemed  merely  to  nod  and  open 
my  eyes.  Then  it  was  all  dark 
around  me,  and  the  Morlocks  had 
their  hands  upon  me.  Flinging  off 
their  clinging  fingers  I  hastily  felt  in 
my  pocket  for  the  match-box,  and — 
it  had  gone!  Then  they  gripped 
and   closed   with   me    again. 

"In- a  moment  I  knew  what  had 
happened.  I  had  slept,  and  my  fire 
had  gone  out,  and  the  bitterness  of 
death  came  over  my  soul.  The 
forest  seemed   full   of  the  smell  of 


IN  THE  DARKNESS  OF  THE  FOREST.      1 77 

burning  wood.  I  was  caught  by  the 
neck,  by  the  hair,  by  the  arms,  and 
pulled  down.  It  was  indescribably 
horrible  in  the  darkness  to  feel  all 
these  soft  creatures  heaped  upon  me. 
I  felt  as  if  I  was  in  a  monstrous 
spider's  web.  I  was  overpowered. 
Down  I  went. 

"I  felt  some  little  teeth  nipping 
at  my  neck.  Abruptly  I  rolled  over, 
and  as  I  did  so,  my  hand  came  against 
my  iron  lever.  Somehow  this  gave 
me  strength  for  another  effort.  I 
struggled  up,  shaking  off  these  human 
rats  from  me,  and  then  holding  the 
bar  short,  I  thrust  where  I  judged 
their  faces  might  be.  I  could  feel 
the  succulent  giving  of  flesh  and  bone 
under  my  blows,  and  for  a  moment 
I  was  free. 

"The  strange  exultation  that  so 
often  seems  to  accompany  fighting 
came  upon  me.  I  knew  that  both  I 
and  Weena  were  lost,  but  I  deter- 
mined to  make  the  Morlocks  pay  for 
their  meat.     I  stood  with  my  back  to 


178  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

a  tree  swinging  the  iron  bar  before 
me.  The  whole  wood  was  full  of  the 
stir  and  cries  of  them. 

"A  minute  passed.  Their  voices 
seemed  to  rise  to  a  higher  pitch  of 
excitement  and  their  movements  be- 
came faster.  Yet  none  came  within 
reach  of  me.  I  stood  glaring  at  the 
blackness.  Then  suddenly  came 
hope. 

"What  if  the  Morlocks  had  no 
courage? 

"And  close  on  the  heels  of  that 
came  a  strange  thing.  The  darkness 
seemed  to  grow  luminous.  Very 
dimly  I  began  to  see  the  Morlocks 
about  me, — three,  battered  at  my  feet, 
— and  then  I  perceived  with  incred- 
ulous surprise  that  the  others  were 
running,  in  an  incessant  stream,  as 
it  seemed  to  me,  from  behind  me, 
and  away  through  the  wood  in  front 
of  me.  And  their  backs  seemed  no 
longer  white,  but  reddish. 

"Then  as  I  stood  agape  I  saw, 
across   a   gap   of    starlight   between 


IN  THE  DA  RKNESS  OF  THE  FORES  T.      179 

the  branches,  a  little  red  spark  go 
drifting  and  vanish.  And  at  that  I 
understood  the  smell  of  burning 
wood,  the  slumberous  murmur  that 
was  growing  now  into  a  gusty  roar- 
ing, the  red  glow,  and  the  flight  of 
the  Morlocks. 

"Stepping  out  from  behind  my 
tree  and  looking  back,  I  saw  through 
the  back  pillars  of  the  nearer  trees 
the  flames  of  the  burning  forest. 
No' doubt  it  was  my  first  fire  coming 
after  me.  With  that  I  hastily  looked 
round  for  Weena,  but  she  was  gone. 
The  hissing  and  crackling  behind  me, 
the  explosive  thud  as  each  fresh  tree 
burst  into  flame,  left  little  time  for 
reflection.  With  my  iron  bar  still  in 
hand  I  followed  in  the  path  of  the 
Morlocks. 

"It  was  a  close  race.  Once  the 
flames  crept  forward  so  swiftly  on  my 
right  as  I  ran,  that  I  was  outflanked 
and  had  to  strike  off  to  the  left.  But 
at  last  I  emerged  upon  a  small  open 
place,   and  as  I  did  so,  a  Morlock 


l8o  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

came  blundering  toward  me  and 
passed  me,  and  went  on  straight 
into  the  fire. 

"And  now  I  was  to  see  the  most 
weird  and  horrible  scene,  I  think, 
of  all  that  I  beheld  in  that  future 
age. 

"This  whole  space  was  as  bright  as 
day  with  the  reflection  of  the  fire. 
In  the  center  was  a  small  hillock  or 
tumulus  surmounted  by  a  scorched 
hawthorn.  Beyond  this  hill  was 
another  arm  of  the  burning  forest 
from  which  yellow  tongues  were 
already  writhing,  and  completely 
encircling  the  space  with  a  fence  of 
fire.  Upon  the  hillside  were  per- 
haps thirty  or  forty  Morlocks,  dazzled 
by  the  light  and  heat  of  the  fire, 
which  was  now  very  bright  and  liot, 
blundering  hither  and  thither  against 
each  other  in  their  bewilderment. 
At  first  I  did  not  realize  their  blind- 
ness, and  struck  furiously  at  them 
with  my  bar  in  a  frenzy  of  fear  as 
they  approached  me,  killing  one  and 


IN  THE  DA  RKNESS  OF  THE  FORES  T,      1 8 1 

crippling  several  others.  But  when 
I  had  watched  the  gestures  of  one  of 
them  groping  under  the  hawthorn 
against  the  red  sky,  and  heard  the 
moans  to  which  they  all  gave  vent,  I 
was  assured  of  their  absolute  help- 
lessness and  refrained  from  striking 
any  of  them  again.  Yet  every  now 
and  then  one  would  come  straight 
toward  me,  setting  loose  a  quivering 
horror,  that  made  me  quick  to  elude 
him.  At  one  time  the  flames  died 
down  somewhat,  and  I  feared  these 
foul  creatures  would  presently  be 
able  to  see  me,  and  I  was  even  think- 
ing of  beginning  the  fight  by  kill- 
ing some  of  them  before  this  should 
happen,  but  the  fire  burst  out  again 
brightly  and  I  stayed  my  hand.  I 
walked  about  the  hill  among  them 
and  avoiding  them,  looking  for  some 
trace  of  Weena,  but  I  found  nothing. 
"At  last  I  sat  down  upon  the  sum- 
mit of  the  hillock  and  watched  this 
strange  incredible  company  of  the 
blind,  groping  to  and  fro  and  mak- 


1 82  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

ing  uncanny  noises  to  one  another, 
as  the  glare  of  the  fire  beat  upon 
them.  The  coiling  uprush  of  smoke 
streamed  across  the  sky,  and  through 
the  rare  tatters  of  that  red  canopy, 
remote  as  though  they  belonged  to 
another  universe,  shone  the  little 
stars.  Two  or  three  Morlocks  came 
blundering  into  me  and  I  drove  them 
off,  trembling  myself  as  I  did  so, 
with  blows  of  my  fists.  For  the  most 
of  that  night  I  was  persuaded  it 
was  a  nightmare.  I  bit  myself  and 
screamed  aloud  in  a  passionate  de- 
sire to  awake.  I  beat  on  the  ground 
with  my  hands,  and  got  up,  and  sat 
down  again,  and  wandered  here  and 
there,  and  again  sat  down  on  the 
crest  of  the  hill.  Then  I  would  fall 
to  rubbing  my  eyes  and  calling  upon 
God  to  let  me  awake.  Thrice  I  saw 
Morlocks  put  their  heads  down  in  a 
kind  of  agony  and  rush  into  the 
flames.  But  at  last,  above  the  sub- 
siding red  of  the  fire,  above  the 
streaming    masses    of    black   smoke 


IN  THE  DARKNESS  OF  THE  FOREST.      183 

and  the  whitening  and  blackening 
tree  stumps,  and  the  diminishing 
number  of  these  dim  creatures,  came 
the  white  light  of  the  day. 

"I  searched  again  over  the  open 
space  for  some  traces  of  Weena,  but 
could  find  none,  I  had  half  feared 
to  discover  her  mangled  remains,  but 
clearly  they  had  left  her  poor  little 
body  in  the  forest.  I  cannot  de- 
scribe how  it  relieved  me  to  think 
that  it  had  escaped  the  awful  fate 
to  which  it  seemed  destined.  As  I 
thought  of  that  I  was  almost  moved 
to  begin  a  massacre  of  the  defense- 
less abominations  about  me,  but  I 
contained  myself.  This  hillock,  as 
I  have  said,  was  a  kind  of  island  in 
the  forest.  From  its  summit  I  could 
now  make  out,  through  a  haze  of 
smoke,  the  l^alace  of  Green  Porce- 
lain, and  from  that  I  could  get  my 
bearings  for  the  white  sphinx.  And 
so  leaving  the  remnant  of  these 
damned  souls  going  hither  and  thither 
and  moaning,  as  the  day  grew  clearer, 


1 84  7^ HE   TIME  MACHINE. 

I  tied  some  grass  about  my  feet  and 
limped  on  across  smoking  ashes  and 
among  black  stems  that  still  pulsated 
internally  with  fire,  toward  the  hid- 
ing place  of  the  Time  Machine. 

"I  walked  slowly,  for  I  was  almost 
exhausted  as  well  as  lame,  and  I  felt 
the  most  intense  wretchedness  on 
account  of  the  horrible  death  of  little 
Weena,  which  then  seemed  an  over- 
whelming calamity.  Yet  even  now, 
as  I  tell  you  of  it  in  this  old  familiar 
room,  it  seems  more  like  the  sorrow 
of  a  dream  than  an  actual  loss.  But 
it  left  me  absolutely  lonely  again  that 
morning — terribly  alone.  I  began  to 
think  of  this  house  of  mine,  of  this 
fireside,  of  some  of  you,  and  with 
such  thoughts  came  a  longing  that 
was  pain. 

"As  I  walked  over  the  smoking 
ashes  under  the  bright  morning  sky 
I  made  a  discovery.  In  my  trouser 
pocket  were  still  some  loose  matches. 
The  box  must  have  leaked  before  it 
was  lost! 


CHAPTER  Xn. 

Zbc  tTrap  of  tbe  mhitc  Spbinj. 

O  about  eight  or  nine  in  the 
morning  I  came  to  the  same 
seat  of  yellow  metal  from 
which  I  had  viewed  the  world  upon 
the  evening  of  my  arrival.  I  thought 
of  my  hasty  conclusions  upon  that 
evening  and  could  not  refrain  from 
laughing  bitterly  at  my  confidence. 
Here  was  the  same  beautiful  scene,  the 
same  abundant  foliage,  the  same  splen- 
did palaces  and  magnificent  ruins,  the 
same  silver  river  running  between  its 
fertile  banks.  The  gay  robes  of  the 
beautiful  people  moved  hither  and 
thither  among  the  trees.  Some  were 
bathing  in  exactly  the  place  where  I 
had  saved  Weena,  and  that  suddenly 
gave  me  a  keen  stab  of  pain.  And 
like  blots  upon  the  landscape  rose 
185 


1 86  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

the  cupolas  above  the  ways  to  the 
underworld.  I  understood  now  what 
all  the  beauty  of  the  overworld 
people  covered.  Very  pleasant  was 
their  day,  as  pleasant  as  the  day  of 
the  cattle  in  the  field.  Like  the  cattle 
they  knew  of  no  enemies,  and  pro- 
vided against  no  needs.  And  their 
end  was  the  same. 

"  I  grieved  to  think  how  brief  the 
dream  of  the  human  intellect  had 
been.  It  had  committed  suicide.  It 
had  set  itself  steadfastly  toward  com- 
fort and  ease,  a  balanced  society  with 
/  security  and  permanence  as  its  watch- 
words, it  had  attained  its  hopes — to 
come  to  this  at  last.  Once,  life  and 
property  must  have  reached  almost 

\  absolute  safety.     The  rich  had  been 
assured  of  his  wealth    and  comfort, 

'  the  toiler  assured  of  his  life  and  work. 
No  doubt  in  that  perfect  world  there 
had  been  no  unemployed  problem, 
no  social  question  left  unsolved. 
And  a  great  quiet  had  followed. 
"It  is  a  law  of  nature  we  overlook, 


THE  TRAP  OF  THE  WHITE  SPHINX.     1 87 

that  intellectual  versatility  is  the 
compensation  for  change,  danger, 
and  trouble.  An  animal  perfectly 
in  harmony  with  its  environment  is 
a  perfect  mechanism.  Nature  never 
appeals  to  intelligence  until  habit 
and  instinct  are  useless.  There  is  no 
intelligence  where  there  is  no  change 
and  no  need  of  change.  Only  those 
animals  partake  of  intelligence  that 
have  to  meet  a  huge  variety  of  needs 
and  dangers. 

"  So,  as  I  see  it,  the  upperworld  man 
had  drifted  toward  his  feeble  pretti- 
ness,  and  the  underworld  to  mere 
mechanical  industry.  But  that  perfect 
state  had  lacked  one  thing  even  of 
mechanical  perfection — absolute  per- 
manency. Apparently  as  time  went 
on  the  feeding  of  the  underworld, 
however  it  was  effected,  had  become 
disjointed.  /Alother  Necessity,  who 
had  been  staved  off  for  a  few  thou- 
sand years,  came  back  again,  and  she 
began  below.  The  underworld,  being 
in    contact   with    machinery    which, 


1 88  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

however  perfect,  still  needs  some  little 
thought  outside  of  habit,  had  prob- 
ably retained,  perforce,  rather  more 
initiative,  if  less  of  every  other  human 
character,  than  the  upper.  And  when 
other  meat  failed  them,  they  turned 
to  what  old  habit  had  hitherto  for- 
bidden. So  I  say  I  saw  it  in  my  last 
view  of  the  world  of  810,701.  It  may 
be  as  wrong  an  explanation  as  mortal 
wit  could  invent.  It  is  how  the 
thing  shaped  itself  to  me,  and  as 
\       that  I   give  it  to  you.^ 

*"  "  After  the  fatigues,  excitements, 
and  terrors  of  the  past  days,  and  in 
spite  of  my  grief,  this  seat  and  the 
tranquil  view  and  the  warm  sunlight 
were  very  pleasant.  I  was  very  tired 
and  sleepy,  and  soon  my  theorizing 
passed  into  dozing.  Catching  my- 
self at  that  I  took  my  own  hint,  and 
spreading  myself  out  upon  the  turf, 
I  had  a  long  and  refreshing  sleep. 

"  I  awoke  a  little  before  sunset- 
ting.  I  now  felt  safe  against  being 
caught  napping  by  the  Morlocks,  and 


THE  TRAP  OP  THE  WHITE  SPHINX.     1 89 

Stretching  myself  I  came  on  down  the 
hill  toward  the  white  sphinx.  I  had 
my  crowbar  in  one  hand,  and  the 
other  played  with  the  matches  in  my 
pocket. 

"  And  now  came  a  most  unex- 
pected thing.  As  I  approached  the 
pedestal  of  the  sphinx  I  found  the 
bronze  panels  were  open.  They  had 
slid  down  into  grooves. 

"  At  that  I  stopped  short  before 
them,  hesitating  to  enter. 

**  Within  was  a  small  apartment, 
and  on  a  raised  place  in  the  corner 
of  this  was  the  Time  Machine.  I 
had  the  small  levers  in  my  pocket. 
So  here,  after  all  my  elaborate  prep- 
arations for  the  siege  of  the  white 
sphinx,  was  a  meek  surrender.  I 
threw  my  iron  bar  away,  almost  sorry 
not  to  use  it. 

"A  sudden  thought  came  into  my 
head  as  I  stooped  toward  the  portal. 
For  once  at  least  I  grasped  the  men- 
tal operations  of  the  Morlocks.  Sup- 
pressing a  strong  inclination  to  laugh, 


t<y>  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

I  stepped  through  the  bronze  frame 
and  up  to  the  Time  Machine.  I  was 
surprised  to  find  it  had  been  care- 
fully oiled  and  cleaned.  I  have  sus- 
pected since  that  the  Morlocks  had 
even  partially  taken  it  to  pieces  while 
trying  in  their  dim  way  to  grasp  its 
purpose. 

**  Now,  as  I  stood  and  examined 
it,  finding  a  pleasure  in  the  mere 
touch  of  the  contrivance,  the  thing 
I  had  expected  happened.  The 
bronze  panels  suddenly  slid  up  and 
struck  the  frame  with  a  clang.  I 
was  in  the  dark — trapped.  So  the 
Morlocks  thought.  At  that  I 
chuckled  gleefully. 

''  I  could  already  hear  their  mur- 
muring laughter  as  they  came  to- 
ward me.  Very  calmly  I  tried  to 
strike  the  match.  I  had  only  to  fix 
on  the  levers  and  depart  then  like  a 
ghost.  But  I  had  overlooked  one 
little  thing.  The  matches  were  of 
that  abominable  kind  that  light  only 
on  the  box. 


THE  TRAP  OF  THE  WHITE  SPHINX.     19! 

"You  may  imagine  how  all  my 
calm  vanished.  The  little  brutes 
were  close  upon  me.  One  touched 
me.  I  made  a  sweeping  blow  in  the 
dark  at  them  with  the  lever,  and  be- 
gan to  scramble  into  the  saddle  of 
the  Machine.  Then  came  one  hand 
upon  me  and  then  another. 

'*  Then  I  had  simply  to  fight  against 
their  persistent  fingers  for  my  levers, 
and   at   the  same  time   feel  for  the 
studs  over  which  these  fitted.      One, 
indeed,  they   almost   got  away  from 
me.     As   it   slipped   from   my  hand 
I   had  to  butt  in  the  dark  with  my 
l^ead— I   could   hear    the    Morlock's 
skull  ring — to  recover  it.     It  was  a 
nearer   thing   than   the   fight  in  the 
forest,  I  think,  this  last  scramble. 

"  But  at  last  the  lever  was  fixed 
and  .  pulled  over.  The  clinging 
hands  slipped  from  me.  The  dark- 
ness presently  fell  from  my  eyes. 
I  found  myself  in  the  same  gray 
light  and  tumult  I  have  already 
described. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

XLbc  jFurtbec  Disiom 

HAVE  already  told  you  of 
the  sickness  and  confusion 
that  comes  with  time  travel- 
ing. And  this  time  I  was  not  seated 
properly  in  the  saddle,  but  sideways 
and  in  an  unstable  fashion.  For  an 
indefinite  time  I  clung  to  the  machine 
as  it  swayed  and  vibrated,  quite 
unheeding  how  I  went,  and  when  I 
brought  myself  to  look  at  the  dials 
again  I  was  amazed  to  find  where  I 
had  arrived.  One  dial  records  days, 
another  thousands  of  days,  another 
millions  of  days,  and  another  thou- 
sands of  millions.  Now  instead  of 
reversing  the  levers  I  had  pulled 
them  over  so  as  to  go  forward  with 
them,  and  when  I  came  to  look  at 
these  indicators  I  found  that  the 
192 


THE  FURTHER   VISION.  193 

thousands  hand  was  sweeping  round 
as  fast  as  the  seconds  hand  of  a 
watch,  into  futurity. 

"Very  cautiously,  for  I  remem- 
bered my  former  headlong  fall,  I  be- 
gan to  reverse  my  motion.  Slower 
and  slower  went  the  circling  hands, 
until  the  thousands  one  seemed  mo- 
tionless and  the  daily  one  was  no 
longer  a  mere  mist  upon  its  scale. 
Still  slower,  until  the  gray  haze 
around  me  became  distincter,  and  dim 
outlines  of  a  low  hill  and  a  sea  be- 
came visible. 

"But  as  my  motion  became  slower 
there  was,  I  found,  no  blinking 
change  of  day  and  night.  A  steady 
twilight  brooded  over  the  earth. 
And  the  band  of  light  that  had  indi- 
cated the  sun  had,  I  now  noticed, 
become  fainter,  had  faded  indeed  to 
invisibility  in  the  east,  and  in  the 
west  was  increasingly  broader  and 
redder.  The  circling  of  the  stars 
growing  slower  and  slower  had  given 
place  to  creeping  points  of  light.     At 


194  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

last,  some  time  before  I  stopped,  the 
sun,  red  and  very  large,  halted 
motionless  upon  the  horizon,  a  vast 
dome  glowing  with  a  dull  heat.  The 
work  of  the  tidal  drag  was  accom- 
plished. .  The  earth  had  come  to  rest 
with  one  face  to  the  sun  even  as  in 
our  own  time  the  moon  faces  the 
earth. 

* '  I  stopped  very  gently  and  sat  upon 
the  Time  Machine  looking  round  me. 

"The  sky  was  no  longer  blue. 
Northeastward  it  was  inky  black,  and 
out  of  the  blackness  shone  brightly 
and  steadily  the  pale  white  stars. 
Overhead  it  was  a  deep  Indian  red, 
and  starless,  and  southeastward  it 
grew  brighter  to  where,  cut  by  the 
horizon,  lay  the  motionless  hull  of 
the  huge  red  sun. 

"The  rocks  about  me  were  of  a 
harsh  reddish  color,  and  all  the  trace 
of  life  that  I  could  see  at  first  was 
the  intensely  green  vegetation  that 
covered  every  projecting  point  on  its 
southeastern  side.     It  was  the  same 


THE  FURTHER  VISION.  195 

i-ich  green  that  one  sees  on  forest 
moss  or  on  the  lichen  in  caves,  plants 
which,  like  these,  grow  in  a  perpetual 
twilight. 

"The  Machine  was  standing  on  a 
sloping  beach.  The  sea  stretched 
away  to  the  southwest  to  rise  into 
a  sharp  bright  horizon  against  the 
wan  sky.  There  were  no  breakers 
and  no  waves,  for  not  a  breath  of 
wind  was  stirring.  Only  a  slight  oily 
swell  rose  and  fell  like  a  gentle 
breathing,  and  showed  that  the 
eternal  sea  was  still  moving  and  liv- 
ing. And  along  the  margin  where 
the  water  sometimes  broke  was  a 
thick  incrustation  of  salt — pink  under 
the  lurid  sky. 

"There  was  a  sense  of  oppression 
in  my  head  and  I  noticed  that  I  was 
breathing  very  fast.  The  sensations 
remind  me  of  my  only  experience 
of  mountaineering,  and  from  that  I 
judged  the  air  was  more  rarified  than 
it  is  now. 

"Far  away  up  the  desolate  slope  I 


196  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

heard  a  harsh  scream,  and  saw  a 
thing  like  a  huge  white  butterfly  go 
slanting  and  fluttering  up  into  the 
sky  and,  circling,  disappear  over  some 
low  hillocks  beyond. 

"The  sound  of  its  voice  was  so 
dismal  that  I  shivered,  and  seated 
myself  more  firmly  upon  the  Ma- 
chine. 

"Looking  round  me  I  saw  that, 
quite  near  to  me,  what  I  had  taken  to 
be  a  reddish  mass  of  rock  was  mov- 
ing slowly  toward  me.  Then  I  saw 
the  thing  was  really  a  monstrous 
crab-like  creature.  Can  you  imagine 
a  crab  as  large  as  yonder  table,  with 
its  numerous  legs  moving  slowly  and 
uncertainly,  its  big  claws  swaying,  its 
long  antennae  like  carters'  whips, 
waving  and  feeling,  and  its  stalked 
eyes  gleaming  at  you  on  either  side 
of  its  metallic  front?  Its  back  was 
corrugated  and  ornamented  with  un- 
gainly bosses,  and  a  greenish  incrus- 
tation blotched  it  here  and  there.  I 
could  see  the  numerous  palps  of  its 


THE   FURTHER   VISION.  197 

complicated  mouth  flickering  and 
feeling  as  it  approached. 

"As  I  stared  at  this  sinister  appari- 
tion crawling  toward  me,  I  felt  a 
tickling  on  my  cheeks  as  though  a  fly 
had  alighted  there. 

"I  tried  to  brush  it  away  with  my 
hand,  but  in  a  moment  it  returned, 
and  almost  immediately  after  another 
came  near  my  ear.  I  struck  at  this 
and  caught  something  threadlike.  It 
was  drawn  swiftly  out  of  my  hand. 
With  a  frightful  qualm  I  turned  and 
saw  I  had  grasped  the  antennae  of 
another  monster  crab  that  stood  im- 
mediately behind  me.  Its  evil  eyes 
were  wriggling  on  their  stalks,  its 
mouth  was  all  alive  with  appetite, 
and  its  vast  ungainly  claws,  smeared 
with  green  slime,  were  descending 
upon  me. 

"In  a  moment  my  hand  was  on  the 
lever  of  the  Time  Machine,  and  I 
had  place  a  month  between  myself 
and  these  monsters.  But  I  found  I 
was  still  on  the  same  beach  and  I  saw 


igS  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

them  distinctly  now  as  soon  as  I 
stopped.  Dozens  of  them  seemed  to 
be  crawling  here  and  there  in  the 
somber  light  among  the  foliated 
sheets  of  intense  green. 

"I  cannot  convey  the  sense  of 
abominable  desolation  that  hung  over 
the  world.  The  red  eastern  sky,  the 
northward  blackness,  the  salt  Dead 
Sea,  the  stony  beach  crawling  with 
these  foul,  slow-stirring  monsters,  the 
uniform,  poisonous-looking  green  of 
the  lichenous  plants,  the  thin  air  that 
hurt  one's  lungs;  all  contributed  to 
an  appalling  effect. 

"I  moved  on  a  hundred  years,  and 
there  was  the  same  red  sun,  the  same 
dying  sea,  the  same  chill  air,  and 
the  same  crowd  of  earthly  Crustacea 
creeping  in  and  out  among  the  green 
weed  and  the  red  rocks. 

"So  I  traveled,  stopping  ever  and 
again,  in  great  strides  of  a  thousand 
years  or  more,  drawn  on  by  the  mys- 
tery of  the  earth's  fate,  tracing  with 
a  strange  fascination  how  the  sun  was 


THE  FURTHER   VISION.  1 99 

growing  larger  and  duller  in  the  west- 
ward sky,  and  the  life  of  the  old 
earth  ebbing  out.  At  last,  more  than 
thirty  million  years  hence,  the  huge 
red-hot  dome  of  the  sun  had  come  to 
obscure  nearly  a  sixth  part  of  the 
darkling  heavens.  Then  it  was  I 
stopped,  for  the  crawling  multitude 
of  crabs  had  disappeared,  and  the  red 
beach,  save  for  its  livid  green  liver- 
worts and  lichens,  seemed  lifeless 
again. 

"As  soon  as  I  stopped  a  bitter  cold 
assailed  me.  The  air  felt  keenly 
cold,  and  rare  white  flakes  ever  and 
again  came  eddying  down.  To  the 
northeastward  the  glare  of  snow  lay 
under  the  starlight  of  the  sable  sky, 
and  I  could  see  an  undulating  crest 
of  pinkish  white  hillocks.  There 
were  fringes  of  ice  along  the  sea  mar- 
gin, drifting  masses  further  out,  but 
the  main  expanse  of  that  salt  ocean, 
all  bloody  under  the  eternal  sunset, 
was  still  unfrozen. 

"I  looked  about  me  to  see  if  any 


20O  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

traces  of  animals  remained.  A  cer- 
tain indefinable  apprehension  still 
kept  me  in  the  saddle  of  the  Machine. 
I  saw  nothing  moving,  on  earth  or 
sky  or  sea.  The  green  slime  on  the 
rocks  alone  testified  that  life  was  not 
extinct.  A  shallow  sandbank  had 
appeared  in  the  sea  and  the  water 
had  receded  from  the  beach.  I 
fancied  I  saw  some  black  object  flop- 
ping about  upon  this  bank,  but  it 
became  motionless  as  I  looked  at  it, 
and  I  judged  my  eye  had  been  de- 
ceived and  that  the  object  was  merely 
a  rock.  The  stars  in  the  sky  were 
intensely  bright  and  seemed  to  me  to 
twinkle  very  little. 

"Suddenly  I  noticed  that  the  circu- 
lar outline,  westward,  of  the  sun  had 
changed,  that  a  concavity,  a  bay,  had 
appeared  in  the  curve.  I  saw  this 
grow  larger.  For  a  minute,  perhaps, 
I  stared  aghast  at  this  blackness  that 
was  creeping  over  the  day,  and  then  I 
realized  that  an  eclipse  was  begin- 
ning.    No  doubt,  now  that  the  moon 


THE  FURTHER   VISION.  20I 

was  creeping  ever  nearer  to  the  earth, 
and  the  earth  to  the  sun,  eclipses 
were  of  frequent  occurrence. 

"The  darkness  grew  apace,  a  cold 
wind  began  to  blow  in  freshening 
gusts  from  the  east,  and  then  the 
white  flakes  that  were  falling  out  of 
the  air  increased.  The  tide  was 
creeping  in  with  a  ripple  and  a 
whisper.  Beyond  these  lifeless 
sounds  the  world  was  silent — silent! 
It  would  be  hard  to  convey  to  you 
the  stillness  of  it.  All  the  sounds  of 
man,  the  bleating  of  sheep,  the  cries 
of  birds,  the  hum  of  insects,  the  stir 
that  makes  the  background  of  our 
lives,  were  over.  As  the  darkness 
thickened  the  eddying  flakes  became 
more  abundant,  dancing  before  my 
eyes;  and  the  cold  of  the  air  more 
intense.  At  last,  swiftly,  one  after 
the  other,  the  white  peaks  of  the  dis- 
tant hills  vanished  into  blackness. 
The  breeze  grew  to  a  moaning  wind. 
I  sa.w  the  black  central  shadow  of 
the  eclipse  sweeping  toward  me.     In 


202  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

another  moment  the  pale  stars  alone 
were  visible.  All  else  was  rayless  ob- 
scurity. The  sky  was  absolutely  black. 

"A  horror  of  this  great  darkness 
came  upon  me.  The  cold  that  smote 
to  my  marrow,  and  the  pain  I  felt  in 
breathing,  overcame  me.  I  shivered 
and  a  deadly  nausea  seized  me. 
Then  like  a  red-hot  bow  in  the  sky 
appeared  the  edge  of  the  sun. 

"I  got  off  the  Machine  to  recover 
myself.  I  felt  giddy  and  incapable 
of  facing  the  return  journey.  As  I 
stood  sick  and  confused  I  saw  again 
the  moving  thing  upon  the  shoal — 
there  was  no  mistake  now  that  it  was 
a  moving  thing — against  the  red 
water  of  the  sea.  It  was  a  round 
thing,  of  the  size  of  a  football  per- 
haps, or  bigger;  it  seemed  black 
against  the  weltering  blood-red  water, 
and  it  was  hopping  fitfully  about. 
Then  I  felt  I  was  fainting.  A  ter- 
rible dread  of  lying  helpless  in  that 
remote  twilight  sustained  me  while  I 
clambered  upon  the  saddle. 


THE  FURTHER   VISION.  203 

*'SoI  camehome.     For  a  long  time 
I  must  have   been    insensible   upon 
the  Machine.     The  blinking  succes- 
sion  of   the    days    and    nights   was 
resumed,  the  sun  grew  golden  again, 
the     sky     blue.     I     breathed    with 
greater    freedom.     The    fluctuating 
contours    of    the    land    ebbed   and 
flowed.     The  hands  spun  backward 
upon  the  dials.     At  last  I  saw  again 
the  dim  shadows  of  homes,  the  evi- 
dences     of      decadent      humanity. 
These,  too,  changed  and  passed,  and 
others    came.     Presently   when    the 
millions  dial  was  at  zero  I  slackened 
speed,   and  began  to  recognize  our 
own    pretty    and    familiar    architec- 
ture.    The  thousands  hand  ran  back 
to  the  starting  point,  the  night  and 
day    flapped     slower     and     slower. 
Then   the  old  walls  of    the   labora- 
tory came  round  me.     Very  gently 
now   I   diminished  the   pace  of   the 
mechanism. 

"I  saw  one  little  thing  that  seemed 
odd  to  me.     I  think  I  have  told  you 


204  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

that  when  I  set  out,  before  my  veloc- 
ity became  very  high,  Mrs.  Watchett 
had  walked  across  the  room,  travel- 
ing, as  it  seemed  to  me,  like  a  rocket. 
As  I  returned  I  passed  again  across 
that  minute  when  she  traversed  the 
laboratory.  But  now  every  motion 
appeared  to  be  the  exact  inversion  of 
her  previous  one.  The  door  at  the 
lower  end  opened  and  she  glided 
quietly  up  the  laboratory,  back  fore- 
most, and  disappeared  behind  the 
door  by  which  she  had  previously 
entered. 

"Then  I  stopped  the  Machine,  and 
saw  about  me  again  the  old  familiar 
laboratory,  my  tools,  my  appliances, 
just  as  I  had  left  them.  I  got  off 
the  thing  very  shakily  and  sat  down 
upon  my  bench.  For  several  minutes 
I  trembled  violently.  Then  I  be- 
came calmer.  Around  me  was  my 
old  workshop  again,  exactly  as  it  had 
been.  I  might  have  slept  there  and 
the  whole  thing  have  been  a  dream. 

"And  yet  not  exactly.     The  thing 


THE  FURTHER   VISION.  205 

had  started  from  the  southeast  corner 
of  the  laboratory.  It  had  come  to 
rest  again  in  the  northwest,  against 
the  wall,  where  you  will  find  it.  That 
gives  you  the  exact  distance  from 
my  little  lawn  to  the  pedestal  of  the 
white  sphinx. 

"For  a  time  my  brain  became  stag- 
nant. Presently  I  got  up  and  came 
through  the  passage  here,  limping, 
because  my  heel  was  still  painful,  and 
feeling  sorely  begrimed.  I  saw  the 
Fall  Mall  Gazette  on  the  table  by 
the  door.  I  found  the  date  was  in- 
deed to-day,  and  looking  at  the  time- 
piece, saw  the  hour  was  almost  eight 
o'clock.  I  heard  your  voices  and 
the  clatter  of  plates.  I  hesitated — 
I  felt  so  sick  and  weak.  Then  I 
sniffed  good  wholesome  meat,  and 
opened  the  door.  You  know  the 
rest.  I  washed  and  dined,  and  now 
I  am  telling  you  the  story. 

"I  know,"  he  said  after  a  while, 
"that  all  this  will  be  absolutely  in- 


206  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

credible  to  you,  but  to  me  the  one 
incredible  thing  is  that  I  am  here  to- 
night in  this  old  familiar  room,  look- 
ing into  your  wholesome  faces,  and 
telling  you  all  these  strange  adven- 
tures." 

He  looked  at  the  Medical  Man. 

"No;  I  cannot  expect  you  to 
believe  it.  Take  it  as  a  lie,  or  a 
prophecy.  Say  I  dreamed  it  in  the 
workshop.  Consider  I  have  been 
speculating  upon  the  destinies  of  our 
race,  until  I  have  hatched  this  fiction. 
Treat  my  assertion  of  its  truth  as  a 
mere  stroke  of  art  to  enhance  its  in- 
terest. And  taking  it  as  a  story, 
what  do  you  think  of  it?" 

He  took  up  his  pipe  and  began  in 
his  old  accustomed  manner  to  tap 
upon  the  bars  of  the  grate. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 
Btter  the  Zimc  traveler's  Stor^. 


HERE  was  a  momentary 
stillness.  Then  chairs  be- 
gan to  creak  and  shoes  to 
scrape  upon  the  carpet.  I  took  my 
eyes  off  the  Time  Traveler's  face 
and  looked  round  at  his  audience. 
They  were  in  the  dark  and  little  spots 
of  color  swam  before  them.  The 
Medical  Man  seemed  absorbed  in 
the  contemplation  of  our  host.  The 
Editor  was  looking  hard  at  the  end 
of  his  cigar — the  sixth.  The  Jour- 
nalist fumbled  for  his  watch.  The 
others  as  far  as  I  remember  were 
motionless. 

The  Editor  stood  up  with  a  sigh. 
"What  a  pity  it   is  you're  not  a 
writer  of  stories!"  he  said,   putting 
207 


208  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

his  hand  on  the  Time  Traveler's 
shoulder. 

"You  don't  believe  it?" 

"Well " 

"I  thought  not."  The  Time  Trav- 
eler turned  round  to  us.  "Where 
are  the  matches?"  he  said.  He  lit 
one  and  spoke  over  his  pipe,  puffing, 
"To  tell  you  all  the  truth— I  hardly 
believe  it  myself — and  yet " 

His  eyes  fell  with  a  mute  inquiry 
upon  the  withered  white  flowers  upon 
the  little  table.  Then  he  turned  over 
the  hand  holding  his  pipe,  and  I  saw 
he  was  looking  at  some  half  healed 
scars  on  his  knuckles. 

The  Medical  Man  rose,  came 
to  the  lamp,  and  examined  the 
flowers.  "The  gynoecium's  odd," 
he   said. 

The  Psychologist  leaned  forward 
to  see,  holding  out  his  hand  for  a 
specimen. 

"I'm  hanged  if  it  isn't  a  quarter 
to  one,"  said  the  Journalist.  "How 
shall  we  get  home?" 


AFTER  THE  STORY.  20^ 

"Plenty  of  cabs  at  the  station," 
said  the  Psychologist. 

"It's  a  curious  thing,"  said  the 
Medical  Man;  "but  I  certainly  don't 
know  the  natural  order  of  these 
flowers.     May  I  have  them?" 

The  Time  Traveler  hesitated. 
Then  suddenly,  "Certainly  not." 

"Where  did  you  really  get  them?" 
said  the  Medical  Man. 

The  Time  Traveler  put  his  hand 
to  his  head.  He  spoke  like  one  who 
was  trying  to  keep  hold  of  an  idea 
that  eluded  him.  "They  were  put 
into  my  pocket  by  Weena— when  I 
traveled    into   Time."      He    stared 

round  the  room.     "I'm  d d  if  it 

isn't  all  going.  This  room  and  you 
and  the  atmosphere  of  everyday  is 
too  much  for  my  memory.  Did  I 
ever  make  a  Time  Machine,  or  a 
model  of  a  Time  Machine,  or  is  it 
all  only  a  dream?  They  say  life  is 
a  dream,  a  precious  poor  dream  at 
times — but  I  can't  stand  another 
that  won't  fit.     It's  madness.     And 


2IO  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

where  did  the  dream  come  from?  I 
must  look  at  that  Machine.  If  there 
is  one." 

He  caught  up  the  lamp  swiftly  and 
carried  it  flaring  redly  through  the 
door  into  the  corridor. 

We  followed  him. 

There  in  the  flickering  light  of  the 
lamp  was  the  Machine,  sure  enough, 
squat,  ugly,  and  askew,  a  thing  of 
brass,  ebony,  ivory,  and  translucent, 
glimmering  quartz.  Solid  to  the 
touch — for  I  put  out  my  hand  and 
felt  the  rail  of  it — and  with  brown 
spots  and  smears  upon  the  ivory, 
and  bits  of  grass  and  moss  upon 
the  lower  parts,  and  one  rail  bent 
awry. 

The  Time  Traveler  put  the  lamp 
down  on  the  bench,  and  ran  his  hand 
along  the  broken  rail. 

"It's  all  right  now,"  he  said. 
"The  story  I  told  you  was  true. 
I'm  sorry  to  have  brought  you  out 
here — in  the   cold." 

He  took   up  the  lamp,  and  in  an 


A  FTER  THE  S  TOR  Y.  211 

absolute  silence  we  returned  to  the 
smoking  room. 

The  Time  Traveler  came  into  the 
hall  with  us  and  helped  the  Editor 
on  with  his  coat.  The  Medical  Man 
looked  into  our  host's  face  and,  with 
a  certain  hesitation,  told  him  he  was 
suffering  from  overwork,  at  which 
he  laughed  hugely.  I  remember 
him  standing  in  the  open  doorway 
bawling  good-night. 

I  shared  a  cab  with  the  Editor. 
He  thought  the  tale  a  "gaudy  lie." 
For  my  own  part  I  was  unable  to 
come  to  any  conclusion  about  the 
matter.  The  story  was  so  fantastic 
and  incredible,  the  telling  so  credible 
and  sober.  I  lay  awake  most  of  the 
night  thinking  about  it.  I  deter- 
mined to  go  next  day  and  see  the 
Time  Traveler  again. 

I  was  told  he  was  in  the  laboratory, 
and  being  on  easy  terms  in  the  house 
I  went  up  to  him.  The  laboratory, 
however,  was  empty.  I  stared  for 
a  minute  at  the  Time  Machine  and 


212  THE    TIME  MACHINE. 

put  out  my  hand  and  touched  a 
lever.  At  that  the  squat,  substantial- 
looking  mass  swayed  like  a  bough 
shaken  by  the  wind.  Its  instability 
startled  me  extremely,  and  I  had  a 
queer  reminiscence  of  childish  days 
when  I  used  to  be  forbidden  to 
meddle.  I  came  back  through  the 
corridor.  The  Time  Traveler  met 
me  in  the  smoking  room.  He  w^as 
coming  from  the  house.  He  had  a 
small  camera  under  one  arm  and  a 
knapsack  under  the  other.  He 
laughed  when  he  saw  me  and  gave 
me  an  elbow  to  shake. 

"I'm  frightfully  busy,"  he  said; 
"with  that  thing  in   there." 

"But  is  it  not  some  hoax?"  said 
I.  "Do  you  really  travel  through 
Time?" 

"Really  and  truly  I  do."  And  he 
looked  frankly  into  my  eyes. 

He  hesitated.  His  eye  wandered 
round  the  room.  "I  only  want  half 
an  hour,"  he  said.  "I  know  why 
you  came,  and  it's  awfully  good  of 


AFTER  THE  STORY.  213 

you.  There's  some  magazines  here. 
If  you'll  stop  to  lunch  I'll  prove  this 
time  traveling  to  you  up  to  the  hilt. 
Specimens  and  all.  If  you'll  forgive 
my  leaving  you  now?" 

I  consented,  hardly  comprehend- 
ing then  the  full  import  of  his 
words,  and  he  nodded  and  went  on 
down  the  corridor,  I  heard  the 
door  of  the  laboratory  slam,  seated 
myself  in  a  chair,  and  took  up  the 
New  Review.  What  was  he  going  to 
do  before  lunch  time?  Then  sud- 
denly I  was  reminded  by  an  adver- 
tisement that  I  had  promised  to  meet 
Richardson  the  publisher  at  two. 
I  looked  at  my  watch,  and  saw  I 
could  barely  save  that  engagement. 
I  got  up  and  went  down  the  passage 
to  tell  the  Time  Traveler. 

As  I  took  hold  of  the  handle  of 
the  door  I  heard  an  exclamation 
oddly  truncated  at  the  end,  and  a 
click  and  a  thud.  A  gust  of  air 
whirled  round  me  as  I  opened  the 
door,    and    from    within    came   the 


214  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

sound  of  broken  glass  falling  on  the 
floor.  The  Time  Traveler  was  not 
there.  I  seemed  to  see  a  ghostly 
indistinct  figure  sitting  in  a  whirling 
mass  of  black  and  brass  for  a 
moment,  a  figure  so  transparent  that 
the  bench  behind  with  its  sheets  of 
drawings  was  absolutely  distinct; 
but  this  phantasm  I  immediately 
perceived  was  illusory.  The  Time 
Machine  had  gone.  Save  for  a  sub- 
siding stir  of  dust  the  central  space 
of  the  laboratory  was  empty.  A 
pane  of  the  skylight  had  apparently 
just  been  blown  in. 

I  felt  an  unreasonable  amazement. 
I  knew  that  something  strange  had 
happened,  and  for  a  moment  could 
not  distinguish  what  the  strange  thing 
might  be.  As  I  stood  staring,  the 
door  into  the  garden  opened,  and 
the  man-servant  appeared. 

We  looked  at  each  other.  Then 
ideas  began  to  come. 

"Has     Mr.   gone   out   that 

way?"  said  I. 


AFTER  THE  STORY.  21$ 

"No,  sir.  No  one  has  come  out 
this  way.  I  was  expecting  to  find 
him  here." 

At  that  I  understood.  At  the 
risk  of  disappointing  Richardson  I 
remained  waiting  for  the  Time 
Traveler,  waiting  for  the  second, 
perhaps  still  stranger,  story,  and  the 
specimens  and  photographs  he  would 
bring  with  him. 

But  I  am  beginning  to  fear  now 
that  I  must  wait  a  lifetime  for  that. 
The  Time  Traveler  vanished  three 
years  ago.  Up  to  the  present  he  has 
not  returned,  and  when  he  does 
return  he  will  find  his  home  in  the 
hands  of  strangers  and  his  little 
gathering  of  auditors  broken  up  for- 
ever. Filby  has  exchanged  poetry 
for  playwriting,  and  is  a  rich  man — as 
literary  men  go — and  extremely  un- 
popular. The  Medical  Man  is  dead, 
the  Journalist  is  in  India,  and  the 
Psychologist  has  succumbed  to  par- 
alysis. Some  of  the  other  men  I 
used  to  meet  there  have  dropped  as 


2l6  THE   TIME  MACHINE. 

completely  out  of  existence  as  if  they, 
too,  had  traveled  off  upon  some  simi- 
lar anachronisms.  And  so,  ending 
in  a  kind  of  dead  wall,  the  story  of 
the  Time  Machine  must  remain  for 
the  present  at  least. 


THE    END. 


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